RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — The Richland County Sheriff's Department has released the name of a man involved in an hours-long standoff with deputies on Tuesday.
On Friday, the department shared new details regarding the standoff, which began around 10:30 a.m. in the 100 block of Morningside Drive in the St. Andrews community. The sheriff's department said that just after 10 a.m., a woman arrived at a department substation to report that 38-year-old Phillip Ray Steele had assaulted her. The woman also reported being held at gunpoint and not allowed to leave a Morningside Drive home until the morning.
Deputies then went to the home to arrest Steele on domestic violence charges but said he refused to leave and barricaded himself for several hours. During this time, crisis negotiators and a special response team were sent to the location to assist.
The sheriff's department said Steele was responsive "for a time," but deputies were ultimately forced to use non-lethal tactics to take him into custody. After roughly five hours and some neighbors being asked to either shelter-in-place or evacuate, Steele was brought out of the home, evaluated and taken to the hospital, where he remained until Thursday night on what the department described as unrelated medical issues.
Upon his release, Steele was booked at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on charges of kidnapping and domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.