In the spring of 2022, a fatal encounter on a roadside in Darlington, South Carolina, brought an end to the life of 37-year-old Kenneth Brian Turner. On April 14th, what began as a law enforcement investigation into a stolen motorcycle escalated into a tense confrontation that resulted in Turner being shot and killed by Darlington County sheriff's deputies. He was a white male.
The events of that day unfolded after deputies connected a stolen motorcycle to Turner and subsequently located him walking along a road in the vicinity of McIver Road and Old Florence Road.
The situation quickly intensified when the deputies approached Turner. He responded by pulling a sawed-off shotgun from a bag he was carrying. Eyewitnesses in the area reported hearing the deputies repeatedly command Turner to drop his weapon. Despite these orders, he continued walking and initially pointed the firearm at himself. The standoff reached a critical point when Turner then aimed the sawed-off shotgun at the deputies. In response to this perceived threat, three of the deputies on the scene discharged their firearms, striking Turner multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Darlington County Coroner. Fortunately, no law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division launched an investigation, a standard procedure for any officer-involved shooting in the state. The purpose of this independent inquiry was to thoroughly examine the circumstances surrounding the use of lethal force and to determine if the deputies' actions were legally justifiable. The findings of the SLED investigation were then presented to the office of the 4th Circuit Solicitor, Will Rogers, for a final determination on whether criminal charges would be pursued against the involved officers.
Several months later, in July 2022, Solicitor Rogers announced his decision. Based on a comprehensive review of the SLED investigative file, he concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support any criminal prosecution of the deputies. Rogers's letter to SLED indicated that the deputies' use of force was justified under the circumstances, particularly given that Turner had pointed a sawed-off shotgun at them. Consequently, no charges were filed against the deputies, and the case was closed without any arrests being made. While the identities of the specific deputies who fired their weapons were not publicly released, the solicitor's decision officially cleared them of any criminal wrongdoing in the death of Kenneth Brian Turner.
