Welfare Check Leads To Fatal Officer-Involved Shooting In Dorchester County

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Agents of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) are investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred in Dorchester County last Saturday (June 14, 2025).

That evening, officers with the Summerville Police Department (SPD) responded to a 911 call for a wellness check regarding a domestic dispute at the Summervillage Mobile Home Park, according to a release from the statewide agency.

Upon arrival, a gunshot was fired from inside the residence – and when an officer entered the home, they encountered a man armed with a handgun. During the ensuing encounter, the officer shot the man – later identified by the Dorchester County coroner’s office as 61-year-old Patrick David Hatcher.

Hatcher was pronounced dead at the scene. No law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.

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SLED is continuing to investigate the shooting, but has not released any additional information at this time. The statewide agency investigates officer-involved shootings as a matter of protocol in the vast majority of local law enforcement jurisdictions in the Palmetto State – presenting investigative reports to the solicitor with jurisdiction over the county or municipality where the shooting transpired.

Saturday’s encounter marks SPD’s first officer-involved shooting this year. So far, this is South Carolina’s twenty-fifth such incident of 2025, compared to the 45 which took place last year.

If this pace continues, the record of 49 officer-involved shootings set in 2017 – and matched in 2020 – would be broken sometime in mid-December of this year.

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THE RELEASE …

(SLED)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Erin Parrott is a Greenville, S.C. native who graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2025 with a bachelor degree in broadcast journalism. Got feedback or a tip for Erin? Email her here.

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