5 officers shot in South Carolina; suspect in custody
Oct 3, 2018, 5:35 PM | Updated: 5:55 pm
FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) — Five South Carolina law enforcement officers were shot Wednesday in Florence County and the suspect is in custody, authorities said.
Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Glenn Kirby confirmed the incident Wednesday, news outlets reported. Kirby said three Florence County sheriff’s deputies and two city officers were shot.
John Wukela, a spokesman for the city of Florence, says city police, working with the sheriff’s office, were responding to an incident in the area when they came under fire. He did not have specific information on the numbers of officers involved but said some were seriously wounded.
The Florence County Emergency Management Department tweeted that the “active shooting situation is over and the suspect is in custody.”
Further details were not immediately available.
****Major Update****
The active shooting situation is over and the suspect is in custody. We are asking everyone to stay away from Vintage Place as there is still an active crime investigation in progress. pic.twitter.com/1OImJOjqXS— FCEMD (@FlorenceCoEMD) October 3, 2018
Authorities said the shootings happened in Vintage Place, an upscale neighborhood in the western part of the city.
Florence, a city in South Carolina’s northeastern corner home to roughly 37,000, sits at the convergence of Interstates 95 and 20. It’s the largest city in the region known as the Pee Dee, an area recently affected by heavy flooding in the wake of Hurricane Florence.
UPDATE: One of the officers has passed away, and the other four are still being treated at a local area hospital.