One person dead following deputy-involved shooting on Wando River Bridge

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – On Friday, News 2 spoke with officials from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, those who witnessed the events as they unfolded on the Wando River Bridge and drivers who were impacted as a result of the bridge being closed due to that fatal shooting.

A deadly deputy-involved took place on the Wando River Bridge Friday afternoon. Chris Ferguson says he was driving on the bridge when a gray pick-up truck, being chased by police, went speeding by.

“It passed me on my passenger side and ended up smashing into a semi-truck,” Ferguson said. “After it got smashed into the semi-truck, it got drug over to the side of the road, and as soon as the truck stopped the police stopped.”

Ferguson says deputies immediately jumped out of their car with their guns drawn.

“It wasn’t but maybe between five to ten seconds after the police got out of the car that I heard about six shots from the police toward the gray truck,” he said.

Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis detailed the events that transpired–saying deputies were in the area looking for an individual on an unrelated warrant.

“While they were in traffic,” Lewis said, “the individual struck two vehicles in from of them, and also attempted to strike them. So, they activated their blue lights and siren and tried to get the individual to stop. There was about an eight to ten minute chase, which ended up on the I-526 bridge over the Wando. During the chase, the individual did strike several vehicles and then stopped on top of the bridge. It appears that they fired shots at the deputies and they returned fire.”

The victim in the deputy-involved shooting has been identified as 37-year-old Brent D. Conrad of Huger.

The Wando River Bridge was shut down in both directions as a result of this deadly situation, leading to major backups on several Mount Pleasant roadways.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is now investigating this incident.