TheeBadOne
Member
Posted Friday, June 6, 2003 - 7:37 am
By Andy Paras
STAFF WRITER
A Greenville man wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting death of his wife shot himself in the head early Friday as a SWAT team surrounded him inside a house in Simpsonville, a sheriff's spokesman said.
William Lewis Snipes, 42, of 113 Henderson Ave., was being treated at Greenville Memorial Hospital, said Sgt. James McCann of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.
Snipes was wanted for questioning in the death of Rhonda K. Snipes, who was killed outside the Silver Bay Restaurant in Easley on May 22, according to McCann and Easley Police Capt. L.W. Hunter.
For more than two hours in the pre-dawn Friday, residents of the Davenport neighborhood in Simpsonville listened to the bullhorn-amplified voices of police trying to talk someone from a nearby house.
They watched as tear gas canisters were fired inside. Police lights shone through their windows, and they saw a SWAT team storm the house.
The disturbance ended with a "plink" sound, neighbors said.
"We heard the shot," said neighbor Doug Bowlby. "It was just a little plink."
Easley Police officers received information Thursday that Snipes was staying in the blue house at the corner of Davenport and Corkwood, Hunter said.
A deputy lives next door to the house, but McCann said the deputy never saw him.
Bowlby's backyard connects to the backyard of the house on Davenport Road, but he and his wife, Tina, rarely saw the people who live there.
"They were kind of the quiet type," Bowlby said.
A maroon-colored Harley Davidson with a painted flame decal was still in the driveway Friday, partially obscured by old blankets.
Most of houses in the neighborhood are split level or one story. About half have swimming pools. White placards with the words "Support our Troops" dot lawns.
Neighbors said the first deputies arrived in the late afternoon asking if people had seen Snipes.
Deputies knocked on the door at about midnight but no one answered, McCann said. Investigators obtained a search warrant and the SWAT team was called to the house shortly after 1 a.m., he said.
Leo Laneve, who lives on Corkwood across from the Davenport house, said when his wife, Cecilia, didn't return to bed after she got up around 2 a.m., he started to wonder what was going on.
Cecilia said police cars were outside. The couple crept to their bedroom window to watch. Leo said there were two squad cars in the yard, and several more in the street.
Four deputies stood beneath their window, Leo Laneve said.
"They talked to him repeatedly, trying to call him out," he said. "It was, 'Billy, we need you to come to the door and come out slow.' They must have told him that two dozen times."
Deputies told the Laneves to cut their lights and shut the windows after they fired the first few gas canister rounds, he said.
A woman came out after the first round about 4 a.m., and sat on the front porch, McCann said.
"They immediately went and got her," Leo Laneve said.
Several more rounds were fired into the house with no movement from inside, McCann said. All but one window was broken from where tear gas canisters went through them. Traces of pink and blue dye were around the holes in the venetian blinds.
About 4:45 a.m., the deputies turned off their lights, Leo Laneve said.
"I told my wife, 'They're going to get him,'" he said.
The SWAT team assembled in an overgrown lawn with foot high dandelions.
They charged the stone front stoop, McCann said.
The wood on the front door was splintered from where deputies knocked it in. Parts of the lock were on the porch.
McCann said the SWAT team entered the house and cornered Snipes in a bedroom. Deputies ordered him to put his handgun down, McCann said.
Snipes put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, he said.
It sounded like a "plink" to Leo Laneve. He said he heard two deputies outside his window ask each other if they heard a shot.
SWAT members then dragged a man out of the house and put him in the front lawn, Laneve said.
"He didn't move," he said.
Emergency crews worked on the man for about 15 minutes and then took him away in an ambulance without the lights or sirens activated, Laneve said.
McCann said it was a joint operation between the U.S. Marshal Task Force, the Easley Police Department and the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.
No one was evacuated during the standoff, McCann said.
He said deputies never fired a shot.
Deputies seized a weapon of the same size and caliber of the weapon used in the Easley shooting, according to a statement released by Easley Police Capt. Hunter. The gun will be sent to the State Law Enforcement Division, the statement said.
The investigation into Rhonda Snipes' death is continuing, Hunter said. Snipes was also wanted on charges of pointing and presenting a firearm and criminal domestic violence in the first degree in connection with an incident with his wife on April 23, according to warrants.
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2003/06/06/200306067884.htm
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Where is society going...
By Andy Paras
STAFF WRITER
A Greenville man wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting death of his wife shot himself in the head early Friday as a SWAT team surrounded him inside a house in Simpsonville, a sheriff's spokesman said.
William Lewis Snipes, 42, of 113 Henderson Ave., was being treated at Greenville Memorial Hospital, said Sgt. James McCann of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.
Snipes was wanted for questioning in the death of Rhonda K. Snipes, who was killed outside the Silver Bay Restaurant in Easley on May 22, according to McCann and Easley Police Capt. L.W. Hunter.
For more than two hours in the pre-dawn Friday, residents of the Davenport neighborhood in Simpsonville listened to the bullhorn-amplified voices of police trying to talk someone from a nearby house.
They watched as tear gas canisters were fired inside. Police lights shone through their windows, and they saw a SWAT team storm the house.
The disturbance ended with a "plink" sound, neighbors said.
"We heard the shot," said neighbor Doug Bowlby. "It was just a little plink."
Easley Police officers received information Thursday that Snipes was staying in the blue house at the corner of Davenport and Corkwood, Hunter said.
A deputy lives next door to the house, but McCann said the deputy never saw him.
Bowlby's backyard connects to the backyard of the house on Davenport Road, but he and his wife, Tina, rarely saw the people who live there.
"They were kind of the quiet type," Bowlby said.
A maroon-colored Harley Davidson with a painted flame decal was still in the driveway Friday, partially obscured by old blankets.
Most of houses in the neighborhood are split level or one story. About half have swimming pools. White placards with the words "Support our Troops" dot lawns.
Neighbors said the first deputies arrived in the late afternoon asking if people had seen Snipes.
Deputies knocked on the door at about midnight but no one answered, McCann said. Investigators obtained a search warrant and the SWAT team was called to the house shortly after 1 a.m., he said.
Leo Laneve, who lives on Corkwood across from the Davenport house, said when his wife, Cecilia, didn't return to bed after she got up around 2 a.m., he started to wonder what was going on.
Cecilia said police cars were outside. The couple crept to their bedroom window to watch. Leo said there were two squad cars in the yard, and several more in the street.
Four deputies stood beneath their window, Leo Laneve said.
"They talked to him repeatedly, trying to call him out," he said. "It was, 'Billy, we need you to come to the door and come out slow.' They must have told him that two dozen times."
Deputies told the Laneves to cut their lights and shut the windows after they fired the first few gas canister rounds, he said.
A woman came out after the first round about 4 a.m., and sat on the front porch, McCann said.
"They immediately went and got her," Leo Laneve said.
Several more rounds were fired into the house with no movement from inside, McCann said. All but one window was broken from where tear gas canisters went through them. Traces of pink and blue dye were around the holes in the venetian blinds.
About 4:45 a.m., the deputies turned off their lights, Leo Laneve said.
"I told my wife, 'They're going to get him,'" he said.
The SWAT team assembled in an overgrown lawn with foot high dandelions.
They charged the stone front stoop, McCann said.
The wood on the front door was splintered from where deputies knocked it in. Parts of the lock were on the porch.
McCann said the SWAT team entered the house and cornered Snipes in a bedroom. Deputies ordered him to put his handgun down, McCann said.
Snipes put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, he said.
It sounded like a "plink" to Leo Laneve. He said he heard two deputies outside his window ask each other if they heard a shot.
SWAT members then dragged a man out of the house and put him in the front lawn, Laneve said.
"He didn't move," he said.
Emergency crews worked on the man for about 15 minutes and then took him away in an ambulance without the lights or sirens activated, Laneve said.
McCann said it was a joint operation between the U.S. Marshal Task Force, the Easley Police Department and the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.
No one was evacuated during the standoff, McCann said.
He said deputies never fired a shot.
Deputies seized a weapon of the same size and caliber of the weapon used in the Easley shooting, according to a statement released by Easley Police Capt. Hunter. The gun will be sent to the State Law Enforcement Division, the statement said.
The investigation into Rhonda Snipes' death is continuing, Hunter said. Snipes was also wanted on charges of pointing and presenting a firearm and criminal domestic violence in the first degree in connection with an incident with his wife on April 23, according to warrants.
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2003/06/06/200306067884.htm
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Where is society going...