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by WILL FOLKS
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Agents of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) are seeking information from the public as they continue to investigate an incident that occurred more than two months ago involving an officer of the state’s Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
According to SCDNR, its officer was “involved in a shooting incident” after he attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a “suspicious vehicle” on December 28, 2025.
The shooting incident took place “in the early morning hours” in rural Edgefield County – although the agency has yet to provided an exact time or location related to the incident. Also, the name and rank of the officer involved has not been released by either SCDNR or SLED.
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“Our officer was shot at repeatedly and, thankfully, sustained no injuries,” SCDNR wrote on X, adding that information obtained from the scene yielded a general description of a subject vehicle tied to the gunfire.
“A possible silver or light blue four-door sedan was the subject vehicle involved in the shooting,” the agency noted in its initial release. “The vehicle’s tag is unknown at this time.”
According to SLED, the officer’s truck was “struck multiple times, and the subject drove off.”
SLED confirmed the SCDNR officer “was not injured” during the shooting.
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It is not clear at this point whether the SCDNR officer had a body-worn camera or a dash camera operating during the stop – and/or during the subsequent shooting. If no such footage was recorded, it is also unclear why a traffic stop would be initiated on a suspicious vehicle without the officer taking steps to document the encounter in some form or fashion.
Furthermore, it remains to be determined what specific “suspicious” circumstances compelled the officer to initiate the traffic stop. Hopefully, SLED’s investigation will provide answers to these – and other – questions.
Anyone with information related to this shooting is urged to email tips@sled.sc.gov and/or call 866-472-8477.
Hopefully someone will come forward with new information that helps us make sense of what transpired… and helps us hold those culpable in connection with this incident accountable.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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3 comments
Jody Barr has some repots up on youtube investigating a SCDNR arrest where the officers intentionally turned OFF their body cams. I believe that the DNR attorney argued, with a straight face, in court that DNR did not have a policy requiring the body cams to be on. Look up “MISFIRE: Wildlife cops lose ‘career’ case against hunter and get sued” on youtube
The officers straight up lied in that case. SCDNR will likely settle the lawsuit rather than have their officer be investigated by SLED for misconduct
Could be that maybe he shot his own truck up and lied, wouldn’t be the first time that has happened with a LE officer.