COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said a man who fired an assault rifle at his officers last week had a written out plan on how to kill them and had a large supply of ammunition to accomplish his goal.
Lott spoke Tuesday to give what he called "disturbing" new details in the ambush against his officers on the morning of August 3 in the Carriage Oaks Subdivision off Clemson Road in northeast Columbia.
Lott said 25-year-old Frederic Westfall's motivation that day was to "kill Richland County deputies.
The sheriff said a total of 16 rounds were fired at his officers in a matter of minutes and that the gunman responsible had 470 more bullets on his body and hundreds more in his home. The bullets struck one of his officer's car, another vehicle, and a home across the street.
"We're lucky an innocent person wasn't hit while getting up gup and getting a cup of coffee," Lott said. "He didn't care."
That morning, Lott said Westfall made two bogus 911 calls to report that a woman was being assaulted at a home in the area. Three officers--Deputy Joseph Shannonhouse, Master Deputy Janson Bell, and Deputy William Beck--were dispatched to the scene. When they determined that the call was fake, they began leaving, but that's when Lott said Westfall opened fire.
One of the bullets hit the passenger side window of Shannonhouse's vehicle, shattering it and causing shards of glass to hit the officer's face. Lott said the deputy was able to use his training to get himself to safety.
Other officers responded to the scene, but Lott said Westfall ran away and took his own life.
When officers found him, they said Westfall was dressed in tactical gear with a bulletproof vest that had steel plates in it. He had pockets and attachments with more gun magazines that included 470 unfired rounds. When deputies searched his nearby home, Lott said his officers found a stash of more gun magazines and bullets. In total, over 900 rounds were recovered.
The gun he used, the sheriff said, had a scope on it and a light. "This gun was equipped with just about everything to carry out an assault," Lott remarked
As they searched his home, officers found a piece of paper in Westfall's belongings. Lott said it was a hand-drawn diagram that included the best places Westfall believed were available to fire at officers, mapping out multiple locations and vantage points that included nearby trees. On the bottom of the page were written the words "dead pigs."
'He knew where his kill zone would be, that was what he was trying to establish," Lott said.
Lott said his officers had approached the scene cautiously that morning and that the positions they took made it hard for Westfall to execute his plan. "Our deputies messed that up," Lott said.
Lott said a search of the man's computer and internet history show he'd been talking with people online about weapons but that it was within the context of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. At no point did he mention shooting police, and Lott said the man's family told investigators he brought up Ukraine when explaining why he was buying military gear.
The sheriff said Westfall had been training on his own how to use his rifle.
Westfall had no criminal history nor record of interaction with deputies.
"We don't know why he wanted to kill deputies sheriffs for Richland county," Lott said. "We'll probably never know."