State agents investigating fatal shooting by Spartanburg, SC, sheriff’s office
Agents of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division are investigating a fatal Friday night shooting by an Upstate police officer.
One or more deputies with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office shot 63-year-old Jimmy Ray Whiteside “during an encounter,” SLED said in a statement.
Paramedics took Whiteside to a hospital where he died, SLED said.
The statement by SLED has limited details and doesn’t identify the deputy or deputies who shot Whiteside.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” SLED said. “As such, no other information about the case will be disclosed by SLED at this time.”
The Spartanburg Herald Journal reported that deputies were called by a neighbor who heard and saw a woman being assaulting at a house on 205 Strange Court. The woman was being assaulted with a machete, the sheriff’s office said.
When deputies arrived they saw the woman with visible injuries and Whiteside was inside the house wielding the machete and a hammer. Deputies repeatedly ordered Whiteside to drop the weapons, but he refused, and they shot him, the Herald Journal reported.
Agents of SLED investigate shootings by police officers at the request of the employing police agency.
“When requested to investigate an OIS, SLED’s goal is to conduct a thorough, independent criminal investigation as timely as is possible under the circumstances,” SLED says as part of every statement on shootings by police, or “officer-involved shooting.”
“SLED agents will conduct interviews with all potential witnesses in this matter. Further, SLED will collect all relevant evidence and will forensically test such evidence as needed.”
The shooting by Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office was the eighth shooting by a South Carolina police officer in 2022, SLED said. In 2021, police officers were involved in 40 shootings, including two by the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.
This story was originally published April 2, 2022 at 4:22 PM with the headline "State agents investigating fatal shooting by Spartanburg, SC, sheriff’s office."