Abbeville County Shooting Kills Deputy; Standoff Continues (breaking story)

[TheeBadOne]

Second Deputy Possibly In Home

ABBEVILLE, S.C. -- Officials say at least one Abbeville County sheriff's deputy has been shot in a standoff off Highway 72.

The standoff began around 9 a.m. at a home at the corner of Highway 72 and Union Church Road, just outside the Abbeville city limits.

Lance Cpl. Steve Sluder with the Highway Patrol said that responding officers found a deputy lying in the front yard with at least one gunshot wound. Sluder said the deputy was flown to Greenville Memorial Hospital. However, officials at Greenville Memorial Hospital told WYFF News 4 that they have had no patients flown in today.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said the 63-year-old deputy died a short time later. Gaulden would not release the deputy's name.

Officers from Abbeville, Abbeville County, Greenwood County and the State Law Enforcement Division are at the scene, and negotiators are talking with the gunman, who is inside the home. Sources tell WYFF News 4 that a second deputy may be in the home with the gunman.

Video from Sky 4 shows dozens of officers at the scene, surrounding a white single-story home from a considerable distance. An Abbeville County cruiser sits in the driveway. Shortly after 1 p.m., a State Law Enforcement Division armored car drove by the front of the home, paused for a few minutes, then drove away.

Neighbors said the man who owned the home has been angry at officials over a Highway 72 widening project that would pass his home.

Highway 72 is closed from Carwellyn Road to Highway 28.

http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/2690086/detail.html
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Sounds like they have their hands full, hope they get to evacuate the neighbors. If you lived next door, what would you be doing?

 

[TheeBadOne]

Updated info

Neighbor Gene Land said a man inside the house was angry because the state planned to take some of his land to widen the highway. Land lives about a half-mile away and said the man had been living in the house with his mother and father for about 20 years. Sheriff Charles Goodwin identified the man in the home as Steve Bixby.

Westwood Elementary, located down the road from the scene, was locked down all day.

"We just said there had been an emergency out on the highway, and you know we need to go into a lockdown mode, and of course when helicopters started circling, some of the teachers got a little nervous, and as the rumors started circling around there was some concern on the part of the teachers. But our students never really were made aware of what was going on," principal Bob Smith told WYFF News 4's Erin Hartness.

Highway 72 is closed from Carwellyn Road to Highway 28.

 

[ny32182]

Where is Abbeyville in SC?

 

[TheeBadOne]

 

[jar]

Spent many an hour in the Drugstore there in Abbeyville. Tiny little college town. Hoped someday my daughter would go to college there. Thought it would be safe.

 

[VaughnT]

Abbeville is in the western part of the state almost directly north of Elberton Georgia. It is South of Greenwood by about 12 miles, and not far from my house.

If you locate Greenville in the NW corner of the state, look about two inches below that, maybe three, and you'll be in the territory.

If you find Anderson, look about two inches to the right.

Is that enough points of reference?

It's interesting to see something like this happen because people really don't believe that something like this could happen in their woods.

What can you do to fight "imminent domain" rulings? Should the state have to pay better than market value to compensate for the trouble, the loss of property, and the loss of property value due to the road being closer to the house?

 

[Edward429451]

Imminent domain is illegal and unconstitutional. Apparently these people know that??

Concord.

 

[tcdrennen]

Actually, it's "Eminent Domain" and it's not unconstitutional IF "just compensation" is given.

Of course, "Just compensation" implies a willing buyer and seller - and the mere announcement of plans for roads or redevelopment IMMEDIATELY lowers a property's value by restricting its marketability.

Classic statism at its most insidious - and most ubiquitous.

 

[tetleyb]

My thoughts go out to the deputies family. A tragic, foolish, unnecessary loss of life. A good man is now dead...

There is no death with honor...Only death.

 

[Edward429451]

Actually, it's "Eminent Domain" and it's not unconstitutional IF "just compensation" is given.

Dang it, I know it's with an "E" Brain fart.

"If just compensation is given" is poppycock.

Just because it's in your lawbook doesn't mean it's lawful.