Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Suspect shot by eight deputies after exiting home with showerhead in January

 

LANDRUM—New details have emerged in the officer-involved shooting that took place in Landrum on January 17. The details were shared in a critical incident community briefing video released by officials on Saturday, March 2. 

In the video, it was revealed that eight deputies discharged their firearms at Gary Whitten after an investigation led them to a residence on Kirby St. in Landrum. Whitten was a suspect in a double homicide that occurred earlier in the day.

The bodycam footage included in the video shows Whitten exiting a mobile home holding a chrome object before pointing it at deputies. The object was later determined to be a showerhead. Whitten was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office conducts comprehensive investigations related to officer-involved shootings,” said Lt. Ryan Flood. “These investigations may require our team to conduct multiple interviews, review audio and video recordings and possibly analyze forensic evidence.”

According to the briefing video, a 911 call from a family member of Whitten’s revealed that he repeatedly spoke about suicide-by-cop, in which he would force officials to kill him by flashing a weapon or something that resembles one. In the 911 call the relative states that “his mental state is not good” and “he has said he would provoke an initiation by cops to shoot him.”

According to Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis, the use of deadly force was deemed justifiable in an internal investigation according to the GSCO policy. The shooting is still being investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.