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An Upstate, South Carolina deputy remains on temporary suspension after a juvenile located her outfitted service weapon in the bathroom of a gas station off of U.S. Route 123, according to Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark.
On Monday, April 22, 2024, Pickens County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) deputy Jewel “Nikki” Holliday, 31, reported her Glock 17 handgun as missing from her holster following a bathroom visit to QuikTrip approximately six hours earlier.
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“THE TOILET AUTOMATICALLY FLUSHED …”
According to a supplementary narrative provided by Holliday, she entered the women’s restroom at approximately 9:57 p.m. EST on April 21 — after responding to an officer-involved shooting (OIS) at Walmart Supercenter in Easley, S.C.
“I unholstered my duty weapon and set it on the back of the toilet,” Holliday wrote in an incident report provided to FITSNews. “I unholster my weapon while using the restroom so that the weight of the gun does not pull my belt out of my pants when I unbutton them.”
Because the commodes at QuikTrip #1121 flush automatically, Holliday contends that she could not flush the toilet manually and “forgot” to grab her service weapon before returning to patrol with her partner, K9 Kona.
Come 2:10 a.m. EST, Holliday notified lieutenant Adam McJunkin of her missing service weapon — prompting PCSO deputies and Easley Police Department (EPD) officers to canvas the QuickTrip and Walmart bathrooms utilized by Holliday that evening.
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“The weapon was not located in either bathroom,” Holliday continued within her supplementary narrative. “We then reviewed footage from the QT … Moments after I exited the bathroom, [a] juvenile … entered the bathroom, then came out of the restroom”
According to PCSO, a juvenile located Holliday’s Glock 17 and thereafter notified her mother standing outside the bathroom; prompting her to swipe the outfitted service weapon and abscond from the QuikTrip.
“She enters the restroom and stays for about a minute,” Holliday continued. “The female seemed to be trying to exit the store quickly, and it appeared she was holding her left arm close to her body and not moving it as if she was holding something.”
At 4:22 a.m. EST, McJunkin entered the firearm into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) as stolen. Additional PCSO deputies were thereupon assigned to the petite larceny case in which Holliday was listed as the complainant and victim.
The following day, detective Jeremy Stone located the aforementioned mother using records provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) — only for the female to attest that her boyfriend discarded the firearm within minutes of leaving the QuikTrip.
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“WE SEARCHED THAT AREA …”
“[She] stated that her boyfriend placed the gun outside the car at the red light,” wrote Stone within hours of the firearm being reported as stolen. “We were then notified by our deputies that they had searched the area we told them but they couldn’t locate the gun.”
By approximately 5:00 p.m. EST, freelance photojournalist Tony Green of Malarkey News noted the presence of PCSO detectives and K9s combing an embankment at the intersection of U.S. Route 123 and Turner Hill Road.
Unbeknownst to Green, deputies were searching for Holliday’s firearm after the woman’s unidentified boyfriend reportedly attested to tossing the Glock 17 from an Acura SUV while en route to Greenville, North Carolina, the previous evening.
“[The S.C. Department of Natural Resources] responded and used their K9 to try and locate the gun but had no success,” continued Stone. “We also had a drone out that flew over the area to look for the gun. I later made arrangements for [boyfriend] to show us where he tossed the gun.”
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Five days later, Malarkey News exclusively reported on the totality of this incident. Green appears to be the first photojournalist to learn of Holliday’s handgun being located by authorities somewhere off U.S. Route 123 near or within Greenville County, S.C.
Come Thursday, May 16, FITSNews deployed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for incident reports pertaining to the handgun. We were thereafter notified that Holliday was written up on April 22 — and that she was to serve a three-day suspension at the discretion of her supervisor.
“While I recognize that deputies are human and, like anyone else, occasionally make mistakes, I hold our deputies to the highest of professional standards,” sheriff Clark wrote on Friday. “Our team … did a fantastic job and recovered the property in a timely manner.”
Sheriff Clark furthermore confirmed that Holliday was formally reprimanded and will undergo additional training to ensure the aforementioned incident never happens again. She will return to work following a three-day suspension on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
This story may be updated.
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THE SHERIFF’S STATEMENT …
(Pickens County)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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5 comments
Too bad she didn’t want an Iced Mocha or one of certain other items from Quick Trip, instead of having to use the restroom. If the QT’s in the upstate are anything like the ones in the Columbia area, they are perpetually out of said items in their grill section. The Deputy would have returned to her vehicle unquenched, with her gun and the incident would never have happened. I wonder if the QT bathrooms are as perpetually out of tp and female sanitary supplies as their grill is out of menu items.
So shitting Barbie took more than four hours to realize her Glock was missing? She must have left quite the loaf and felt light as a feather exiting the QT. But wait! Apparently she was not sure which bathroom she had misplaced her firearm in. Was it in Walmart or QT? How many times did she drop the pants and place her Glock on the toilet during her shift that night?
I wonder if she walked her dog that often after all they have to go too but they don’t have to pull down anything to go.
I am a little confused. Maybe I did not read something clearly, but the article mentions several times that the gun was not found or not recovered. However, the sheriff in his statement mentions to property was recovered. Can you clarify whether the gun was found or not?
Please tell me the two adults involved in the theft of this gun will be charged and prosecuted for this!
Buckwheat sold the gun to a gang-banger.