A search along the South Carolina coast for a man who shot and wounded two people, including a sheriff’s deputy, ended with the man dead, authorities said Thursday.
No details were immediately available about the circumstances surrounding the man’s death, and the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said it would hold a news conference later in the day.
Deputies had been searching for Ernest Robert Burbage III on Johns Island since about noon Wednesday, when he began shooting randomly, striking a passenger in a passing vehicle, Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano said. The sheriff’s office announced that Burbage had died around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
After shooting at the vehicle, Burbage fired at members of a SWAT team as they exited an armored vehicle Wednesday night, with one of the shots hitting the officer driving it in the head, Graziano said.
A man who shot a deputy and another person in South Carolina has died, the local sheriff’s office said.
Charleston County Chief Deputy James Gilbreath was alert and conscious at the hospital and would likely be released Thursday, said the sheriff, who released photos of the deputy’s bloodstained cap.
Officers had asked people on Johns Island to stay home and report if they see anything out of place in storage sheds, boats or other places where someone might hide.
One high school, one middle school and three elementary schools in the area were closed before students arrived Thursday morning due to concerns about safety, including for students on school buses, County School District officials said. Charleston.
The park surrounding the Johns Island Angel Oak, a tree up to 400 years old that is the largest oak tree east of the Mississippi River, was also closed while the search for Burbage continued.
