AIKEN, S.C. (AP) — A sheriff’s deputy in South Carolina has been fired after he shot at a car trying to drive away from a traffic stop, the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputy Christopher Williams violated the agency’s use-of-force policy when he fire a shot that hit the back of the fleeing car, the sheriff’s office said Thursday in a statement.
Authorities said no one was hurt and that the woman who drove away from the stop faces drug and failing-to-stop-for-a-blue-light charges, authorities said.
The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the shooting.
South Carolina had a rash of incidents of police officers shooting at moving cars about a decade ago, leading state police to increase training for officers on how to approach cars from the side.
The training also emphasized the danger of firing at a moving car to anyone else in the area and that unless the driver is a known felon or behaving dangerously, it is safer to get a license tag number and find them later.
