Comes the story.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — As a black South Carolina man was being rushed to the hospital after he was shot by a white sheriff's deputy, he told an investigator in a recorded interview that he should have dropped the gun he had grabbed earlier to protect himself from intruders.
"I saw officers and I should have put the gun down," Bryant Heyward told a Charleston County Sheriff's investigator during an interview in the ambulance following the Thursday incident.
"I didn't. They thought I was the crook and shot," Heyward, 26, said. The recorded interview was played Friday for local community leaders and news reporters.
Heyward told the investigator he had called 911 because two men were trying to break into the house he shares with his mother and brother in the rural community of Hollywood, South Carolina. He said he went to his brother's room to get his brother's gun as the men tried to get in.
Deputy Keith Tyner who responded to the 911 call, shouted commands at Heyward before firing and wounding him in the neck, according to an incident report released Friday.
Meanwhile, an attorney for the family, Justin Bamberg of Orangeburg, South Carolina, said Heyward cannot speak and has no feeling from his waist down. Heyward is being treated at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Bamberg said the family has questions about the incident and it's not clear if Heyward pointed the gun at the officers or was just holding it.
Another family attorney, Chris Stewart of Atlanta, said Heyward's statement to the investigator "just shows the type of person he is. He just got shot by the officers and he said it isn't your fault. But he's not a trained officer knowing when they should shoot someone and when they should not."
On the recorded 911 call, Heyward tells an emergency dispatcher, "Someone was trying to break into my house. Please come. ... It's an emergency and they have guns. Please come!"
When deputies arrived at the mobile home down a dirt driveway they saw a gunshot hole in a front window and the back door appeared to be damaged, according to the incident report.
Heyward came out of the back door with a gun and the officer told him to drop it, Sheriff's Maj. Eric Watson said.
MORE: http://news.yahoo.com/investig...owner-083452475.html
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The first story I saw about this screamed "BLACK homeowner shot by WHITE deputy". First Baltimore isn't looking like cold hard murder, and now this? How many reading the first stories about these cases even see and read the follow ups, even if there are follow up stories printed? But in this case the family has "lawyered up", so we can be sure it's not over. This shouldn't even be more than a local story. Too, did msnbc call this homeowner "trigger happy" for using a gun to protect himself and his family like they did the woman in GA that shot the intruder?