A man is suing a sheriff’s office in South Carolina saying deputies shot at him nearly 50 times when he was having a mental health crisis in a parked truck with a shotgun in his lap, even though he says his hands were raised. Trevor Mullinax survived being hit nine times in May 2021, with three wounds to the head, according to the lawsuit filed against the York County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month. The four sheriff’s deputies started shooting only a few seconds after arriving on the scene and yelling “Hands!” several times, as seen in police dash cam video released by Mullinax’s lawyers. The barrage lasted all of five seconds, leaving the pickup windshield riddled with bullet holes. Warning ⚠️: This video is graphic. Almost 50 shots fired, and our client was struck 9x, including directly in the back of the head. In a 911 call for a wellness check leading up to this moment, the caller stated: “We just want to get our buddy some help.” pic.twitter.com/gJB7O2JQoO — Justin Bamberg, Esq. (@JustinBamberg) May 9, 2023 “Those officer went out there like John Wayne cowboys. They came out there like gunslingers,” attorney Justin Bamberg said at a news conference Tuesday. Prosecutors reviewing the case did not charge the four deputies who shot at Mullinax. The officers said they saw him reach back to the truck’s rear seat, grab the shotgun and point it at them, according to a letter from Solicitor Kevin Brackett clearing the officers. Mullinax’s mother, Tammy Beason, said she’d been trying to comfort her son for hours after he threatened to kill himself. She was standing by the driver’s-side window when the officers opened fire. She wasn’t wounded. But deputies handcuffed her, wailing and clearly distraught, less than a minute after the shooting. Two deputies hustled her away as she cries, “What are they going to do with my son?” The video begins with the deputies driving up to Mullinax’s truck parked on his family’s land near Rock Hill on May 7, 2021. A family member had called 911 because Mullinax was threatening to kill himself. He said “We’re just trying to get our buddy some help,” and gave the operator the cellphone numbers for him and his mother, according to the 911 call. The deputies never called either of them, driving to the truck after Mullinax’s grandfather told them where it was located, Bamberg said. The 47 shots were fired in five seconds, according to the State Law Enforcement Division report on the shooting. The video shows two deputies pull a bleeding and wounded Mullinax out of the truck and handcuff him. “You’re not a death squad. You’re supposed to try to help people, even if you’ve got to shoot them,” Bamberg said, “They handcuff this man with three bullet holes in his head and then they handcuff his mama. Treat her like a criminal. This was disgusting.” Mullinax was the only person charged in the 2021 shooting and faces one count of pointing and presenting a firearm, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. At the time of the shooting, Mullinax had a warrant for his arrest on a different charge, but his lawyers said that burglary charge was dismissed and there are no court records of it. The […]
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