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A police officer at Spartanburg Methodist College on Monday night shot and killed a student at Limestone College, another South Carolina institution, when the officer said the student tried to run him over, The Greenville News reported. Police and witnesses say the officer was responding to reports of car break-ins in a dormitory parking lot. Authorities say when the officer tried to stop two suspects, the Limestone student got in a car and started driving toward the police officer as if to run him over, and the officer fired when the suspect refused to stop.
The officer was a white man and the student was a black man -- and South Carolina, like many other states, has been debating whether police officers are too quick to shoot when suspects are black males. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said the shooting had “zero to do with color.” He said, “This has everything to do with an officer’s life being put in jeopardy and him defending himself lawfully.”
Spartanburg Methodist recently purchased body cameras for police officers, but they have yet to start using them.
