A person died Thursday following a shooting involving a deputy at a rest area along southbound I-85 in Anderson County, South Carolina. The shooting happened near mile marker 23, and the Anderson County Sheriff's Office says a suicidal person armed with a gun was at the scene.
According to WYFF News 4, deputies responded to the rest stop after reports of a suicidal person with a firearm. Sheriff McBride told Fox Carolina that deputies received the call just before noon to conduct a welfare check on a person who had threatened others, including family members.
Vehicle Boxed In Before Shot Fired
Per the sheriff's account to the same station, the person tried to drive away as deputies arrived. Deputies then boxed in the vehicle, and the person pulled a gun and fired a shot before a deputy returned fire.
The sheriff said the person's gunshot wound was self-inflicted and that the deputy's shot did not hit him. Officials said no deputies were hurt in the encounter.
SLED Takes Over Investigation
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has been called in to take over the investigation, a standard procedure in officer-involved shootings in the state. No further details about the person who died, including their identity, have been released.
The case adds to a string of officer-involved shootings this year. A separate WYFF report noted that an earlier incident counted as South Carolina's 11th officer-involved shooting of 2026 and marked the first such shooting this year for the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, after the agency had two of the state's 45 officer-involved shootings in 2025.
That earlier case unfolded differently. Around 4 p.m. on April 20, a K9 officer with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office pulled over a vehicle along the same interstate corridor, and the stop turned deadly when the driver, identified as 32-year-old Austin Derrell Robertson of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, shot one deputy. Both deputies returned fire, and Robertson was pronounced dead at the scene.
No additional information about Thursday's shooting, including the identity of the person who died or further findings from investigators, has been made public as the inquiry continues.
