COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Five of the seven officers trying to arrest a South Carolina man wanted for reckless driving and resisting arrest fired at him as he pulled out a gun while trying to run away, according to body camera footage released Tuesday.
Michael Culbertson, 26, died in the July 11 shooting by Greenville County deputies, authorities said.
Culbertson’s death ended two days of searching for the man wanted for a traffic violation along with fleeing police and resisting arrest.
The deputies have been cleared of violating Greenville County Sheriff’s Office policy, Sheriff Hobart Lewis said, but a state criminal investigation into whether shooting Culbertson was justified continues.
In 3 seconds from the time a deputy jumps from the back of an unmarked van yelling to see Culbertson’s hands to the first shot being fired, Culbertson reaches in his pocket and gets a gun, according to the body camera footage.
There is a brief pause after the first shot as Culbertson keeps running and appears to try to shift the gun in his right hand. Then a barrage of shots from deputies is heard and seen as Culbertson falls to the street about 10 seconds after the first officer jumped from the van, according to the videos.
Sheriff Lewis said at the time of the shooting that Culbertson pointed the gun at deputies, but the body camera footage does not show that clearly. It does show a gun and a loaded magazine near Culberton’s body as deputies run up and begin first aid.
Culbertson was white. The races of the deputies were not immediately released.
The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office releases edited body camera footage and other details in a YouTube video when their deputies shoot at or injure people within 45 days of the incident, an unusual policy among South Carolina police agencies.
“Culbertson’s actions led to the deputies taking the necessary force that unfortunately led to his death,” Lewis said on the office’s video.
The State Law Enforcement Division investigation into the shooting continues.
The names of the deputies have not been released. Two were in uniform and five others were part of a special team to arrest fugitives, authorities said.
Deputies tried to arrest Culbertson the day before the shooting, but he got away, authorities said.
Investigators then spoke to his family, and Culbertson’s grandfather, who lives a few houses away from where he was killed and took a call from his grandson as a deputy stood near enough to hear the conversation.
Culberton refused to say where he was, but told his grandfather “I’m not going to jail. They’ll have to kill me,” Carey Reese said.
Reese told The Greenville News he thinks that comment led deputies to decide quickly to shoot at his grandson instead of trying something else.
“Michael had a mouth,” Reese said.
Culbertson called his grandfather three more times, but Reese did not answer.
“I could just kick myself. I didn’t talk to him. That would have been the last chance I could have talked to him,” Reese told the newspaper.
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