A Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) deputy assisted an Elgin Police Department (EPD) officer on a vehicle pursuit involving a man suspected of DUI in a backhoe on December 2nd. The deputy, who was traveling on White Pond Road, responded after hearing the officer’s plea for help. They said to meet him and the suspect at a liquor store on Rose Street in Elgin. The EPD officer also reported that the man appeared to be possibly intoxicated and that it was the store with a possibly stolen backhoe.
When the deputy arrived at the liquor store, the deputy found both the officer and the backhoe gone, and soon learned that the Elgin officer was chasing the suspect in the backhoe onto Church Street. When the deputy succeeded, both officers surrounded the backhoe in an effort to deploy spike strips. However, the man managed to maneuver around the tracks and, as he passed the deputy, threw his hands in the air yelling, “I’ll take it back!”
After the deputy rejoined the chase, the EPD officer was able to put on the spike strips, successfully deflating the rear passenger tire of the backhoe. The Elgin officer then placed his patrol vehicle in front of the backhoe, forcing the man to stop. The man got out of the backhoe and the two officers put the man on the ground and handcuffed him.
When asked where he pulled the backhoe from, the man said, “By the chicken shack,” which the reporting deputy indicated in his report that they knew was a market on Smyrna Road. They also reported that they knew the suspect as homeless, unemployed and a “frequent narcotic user.” After checking with a supervisor from the company that owns the backhoe, the deputy learned that no one was supposed to be on the tractor since it was the weekend and no one was working that day.
KCSO reported the following other recent incidents:
Deputies arrested a man after an incident at a Greenleaf Street residence in the Elgin area involving the man’s father that led to officers having to search for the victim twice after learning he was wanted on an outstanding warrant out of Lexington County. Deputies arrived at the home on the night of Nov. 29 and encountered the 23-year-old man who said he had gotten into an altercation with his father. He claimed that his aunt told him that his father had assaulted his mother, so he confronted his father. While doing so, he claimed, his father picked up an object, but did not hit him. Deputies then attempted to speak with the father, who was in a shed behind the residence and would not come out. Deputies then spoke with the homeowner who said he did not know what was going on. While speaking with the homeowner, dispatchers informed the deputy reporting the victim’s outstanding warrant from Lexington County. When they went to confront the young man, other deputies said he had already left the scene. Deputies used K9 Maize in an effort to track the man down Bowman Street to Cherokee Boulevard and eventually to a home on Archer Avenue. Deputies were unable to get anyone to the door and were unable to find the man. Several hours later, around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 30, deputies and K9 Maize returned to Greenleaf Street to try to find the man. When officers arrived this time, they saw two men who both looked similar to the man wanted by Lexington County get into a Chevrolet SUV and conducted a traffic stop as they drove off. Neither man turned out to be the man they were looking for. At the residence, they spoke with the man’s mother who led them in and around the house. When she tried to open her own room, she couldn’t open it all the way because he was hiding behind her. The man resisted arrest to some extent and had to be forced to lie down on a bed to be handcuffed. He reportedly still tried to get away from the officers as they escorted him out of the house, but calmed down when he was allowed to put on his shoes and smoke a cigarette. Deputies charged him with resisting arrest and took him to the Lexington County Jail. As of Dec. 5, he was still being held at the Kershaw County Detention Center.
A deputy assisted Camden Police Department (CPD) officers on Nov. 28 after hearing a call that someone was fighting during a traffic stop on US 1 (West DeKalb Street) near Springdale Drive. When they arrived, the deputy reported seeing a CPD officer grab the suspect’s right arm. They pulled out their conductive energy (“taser”) weapon, pointed it at the suspect, and gave strong verbal commands to put their hands behind their backs. As they approached, however, the deputy saw that the man was already handcuffed, but we got the “taser” since the man was still resisting verbally. The deputy then assisted the CPD officer in escorting the suspect to a squad car where the decision was also made to place him in a roadblock. It was also decided to handcuff the man in the back and not in the front as it had been originally. During this process, the man resisted by trying to bring one of his arms back in front of him. At that point, they forced him to the floor on his stomach so the deputy could help handcuff him in the back.
A man living on Damascus Church Road in Westville reported on Nov. 28 that sometime in the previous week, his ex-girlfriend trespassed into his residence and proceeded to assault him and attempted to assault a female friend his He alleged that when he got to her house, he used a cinder block to open the back door and when he got to the living room, she was already inside. He said she assaulted him by punching him in the face and scratching him. He also said he was able to stop his ex-girlfriend from getting to the bedroom to assault the other woman, and got her out of the house, after which he left. The report did not explain why the man waited more than, if not all of, a week to report the robbery and assault.
On Nov. 29, after seeing a white sedan with a tinted license plate cover, in violation of SC state law, on US 601 South near Medfield Drive, a deputy initiated a traffic stop on US 601 and Lachicotte Road, but the The driver did not stop until he reached a nearby gas station further down the highway. After the traffic stop, the deputy issued tickets for driving while suspended, violation of the state’s uninsured motor vehicle fee and failure to surrender a suspended license plate. The deputy also issued verbal warnings to the driver for the incorrect display of the license plate as well as for the tinted window of the car, which was towed.
On Dec. 1, an adult complainant brought a juvenile victim to the sheriff’s office to report a “party house” on Springdale Drive in Camden. Two suspects, a brother and a sister, allegedly provide alcohol and pills to anyone who wants them. The juvenile victim reportedly told deputies they had been to the home several times and saw it happen. The adult complainant stated that he wanted to see what law enforcement could do about it.
Two men were reportedly caught on security footage at a business on White Pond Road near I-20 stealing tires destined for recapture or scrapping on Nov. 28. The business estimated the value of the tires at $300. Deputies reported that at no time did company employees come out to question the two men about what they were doing, and only investigated after the men left. The suspects appeared to be driving a two-tone blue and silver Dodge Ram.
A man working on new housing on Champions Rest Road in the Lugoff area reported on Nov. 30 that a man reportedly drove up to the job site where workers’ vehicles were parked, entered the his vehicle and stole a book bag from his work van that contained a .40 subcompact handgun and a laptop computer. A witness said the man, described as a black man of medium height with afro hair, fled in a blue sedan.
Someone managed to break into a storage unit at a location on Lachicotte Road in Lugoff sometime between June 2 and November 27 and stole a large rug, several duck decoys, a partial boat engine , various hunting equipment, five to six boxes of shotgun shells. four to five mini-propane cylinders and various tools. Victims reported that the locking mechanism on the storage unit had been damaged.
A deputy responded Nov. 28 to Porter Road near Bethune in response to a burned out car, which turned out to be a Ford Escape whose vehicle identification number came back to a Chesterfield County address. The deputy reported that the license plate of the vehicle was missing.
A man living on Smyrna Road in the Elgin area reported on Nov. 27 that a woman and her mother came to his residence to pick up her belongings and while doing so, the woman stole $11,000 in cash from your backpack.
County deputies also handled incidents involving assault and battery, theft, domestic violence, DUI, driving under suspension, emotionally disturbed person, financial identity fraud, financial transaction card fraud, theft, malicious damage to property , missing person, narcotic activity, public disorder. conduct, escape, fraud, suspicious activity, trespassing, illegal carrying of a weapon (without a concealed weapons permit) and violation of a restraining order,
