Man assaulted deputies following Ridgeville altercation

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – A person is dead and a suspect is in custody following a shooting and altercation that happened Tuesday in the Ridgeville area.

The incident happened at The Preserve apartment complex around 9:30 a.m., according to Maj. Bobby Shuler with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office.

“We get here and ended up getting flagged down by one of the occupants of the residence who left the residence due to the disturbance,” he said.

The woman who waved deputies down was the mother of the suspect.

“She advised that her son was in there, causing the disturbance. Deputies got here and made contact with him in the breezeway in front of the apartment. While talking to him, he became super agitated and was not very cooperative. At some point, he takes off on a foot pursuit and he ended up assaulting two of the deputies in the process of the foot pursuit, and ultimately, we were able to take him into custody,” said Maj. Shuler.

Investigators then headed back to the apartment.

“They went in there and did a protective sweep of the apartment and ended up finding a deceased male inside the apartment,” he said.

The Berkeley County Corners Office said the victim is an 18-year-old male. They will be releasing additional information about his death soon, and the sheriff’s office will be releasing more information about the suspect who is in custody as well.

“We were out there obviously earlier with the K9s doing an article search. He did throw a cell phone. I think we’ve determined that cell phone probably went into the pond, but we’re still searching in the altercation ended up in the woods at the very back of the apartment building.”

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to contact the sheriff’s office.