South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office are responding after a shooting involving Spartanburg County Sheriff’s deputies early Friday morning in Boiling Springs.
Lt. Kevin Bobo with the sheriff’s office said deputies responded to a “disturbance with weapons call” on 155 Coldstream Dr. at 3:20 a.m. that resulted in a hostage situation in a press release sent Friday afternoon.
In the release, Bobo said deputies fired at a man who was using a gun to hold a juvenile hostage.
Bobo said deputies involved were not injured. However, Chief Investigator with the coroner’s office, Jonathan Lawson, confirmed that his office is responding to the scene.
According to to the release, a juvenile initially called 911, stating their father had a rifle and a shotgun and was threatening to shoot someone in the house, as well as himself. An adult male in the house verified the juvenile’s account over the phone and claimed there were several other juveniles inside the residence, Bobo said.
After a perimeter was established around the residence, Bobo claimed attempts to call the suspect to surrender peacefully were unsuccessful, but the other adult male and all but one juvenile was able to escape by climbing out of a window.
“The suspect then started going in and out of the house while armed with a rifle and was also holding the remaining juvenile hostage,” the statement said. “The suspect would alternate between pointing the gun at deputies, at the hostage and himself. He never complied with numerous verbal commands to drop his weapon; so deputies fired their weapons in defense of the hostage and themselves.”
Bobo said the sheriff’s office notified SLED, which is now the lead investigative agency. SLED public information officer Renee Wunderlich confirmed earlier Friday morning that the agency was responding.