RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott shared new information on Sunday while addressing multiple rumors regarding the deadly shooting of a man by one of his deputies on Saturday evening.
Sheriff Lott detailed what his investigators found outside a home in the 2400 block of Hayward Brockington Road where his department says deputies were called regarding a domestic dispute with a weapon.
Lott said that, when deputies arrived around 6 p.m., they saw members already outside claiming that they had been attacked.
The sheriff said in Sunday's update that 34-year-old Irvin Moorer-Charley exited the home not long after and appeared to be holding a knife - later identified as a "wooden stake."
"Some people have called it a stick, it's not a stick. It didn't come from a tree," he said. "it's like an arm of a chair, maybe, where it has a handle and then it goes down to a sharp point."
The sheriff said Moorer-Charley was given multiple orders to drop the weapon but continued to approach deputies who he said were giving up ground even as they issued commands. The sheriff added that Moorer-Charley was then shot with a taser before he ultimately charged at Deputy Zachary Hentz.
Deputy Hentz, according to the department's statement, then opened fire and wounded Moorer-Charley. Police reiterated information provided the previous night suggesting that Hentz and another deputy attempted to resuscitate Moorer-Charley who later died.
"It was a very close encounter. The last shot was probably less than three feet away," he said. "This whole incident happened in about a minute and 47 seconds."
Sheriff Lott said that while the incident now appears to involve mental health issues, the initial call was not a medical call.
"We received a 911 call for a domestic situation involving someone with a know - with a weapon," he said.
And while the incident is still under investigation, the sheriff said that the evidence shows that the deputy was firing to defend himself from an attack.
"I don't know what was in [Moorer-Charley]'s mind or in his heart, but I also know that this deputy is not expected to die," the sheriff said. "And he had to protect himself and that's what he did yesterday."
The sheriff also took issue with some public characterizations of how the event unfolded.
"He was not shot in the back. He was not shot 10 times and the coroner will address that, he was not shot when he was handcuffed, he was not tased multiple times," the sheriff said. "Everything that happened was on bodycam. There's video of the whole incident."
Coroner Naida Rutherford also spoke to the media acknowledging that she was in agreement with the sheriff's statements.
"We can without a doubt and scientifically prove that he was not shot in the back," Rutherford said. "And I think that's really important to control the narrative that's going around in the community and to address that head-on."
However, the sheriff said that aside from a brief clip shared in the day's press conference, he would not be providing the full videos at this time. The clip shown on Sunday showed Moorer-Charley approaching with the stake-like object in his hand while not complying with police commands.
The sheriff said he would be sharing the rest of the video with the family soon and added that this was the first shooting involving a deputy in his department since 2013.