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During the early morning hours of April 22, 2026, a deputy with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) responded to an emergency call for service at a home on Ramblin Road in South Congaree, South Carolina. Upon arrival, he found the front door open and a man sitting inside holding a gun.
The armed suspect was Brian Jackson, a longtime councilman for the Town of South Congaree, a small municipality of roughly 2,400 residents where scandal upon scandal has emanated from the highest levels of town hall for the better part of a year.
This particular morning would prove no exception.
With blue police lights flashing outside his home, Jackson held a freshly fired gun in his hands until an additional LCSD unit arrived on scene — at which point the responding deputy issued “loud and clear commands” for the politician to drop it.
“He complied,” the deputy wrote in an incident report (.pdf). “Then I told [Jackson] to raise both hands… and not to reach for anything.”
Once inside, deputies secured Jackson’s weapon and searched the residence, finding no one. What they found instead was a councilman who apparently just emptied three firearms at multiple figments of his own imagination.
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?? SOUTH CAROLINA COUNCILMAN SHOOTS UP HOME DURING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS, REMAINS ARMED AND ON COUNCIL
— Andrew Fancher (@RealAndyFancher) June 9, 2026
? South Congaree, South Carolina
According to an incident report from the Lexington County Sheriff's Department (#LCSD), South Congaree Councilman Brian Jackson discharged a… pic.twitter.com/nxEXaFaMCo
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Per the incident report, obtained by FITSNews, Jackson told deputies he fired seven rounds at “a man and his family” he believed were showering inside his home. He stated he could “still” hear the family inside and believed they were hiding in a closet.
“I heard nothing inside the home,” the deputy stated in his written narrative.
The same deputy wrote that Jackson claimed he had spoken with the nonexistent man and ordered him to leave because he “didn’t want to shoot the [nonexistent] kids or women,” insisting he had only fired down the hallway to “scare them.”
“It appeared that [Jackson] shot more than seven times when walking around the home,” the deputy noted. “He stated he shot his pistol and both shotguns until they were empty.”
Amid discussion of a phantom family, one of Jackson’s actual family members arrived on scene and offered LCSD a sobering assessment. They told deputies Jackson does not take his prescription medication as directed and that he “drinks way too much.”
They further volunteered suspicions that the councilman was “using drugs.”
Armed with the accounts of both Jackson’s family and the councilman himself, police records indicate it was unanimously agreed that Jackson be transported to a mental health facility, believed to be Three Rivers Behavioral Health in Lugoff, S.C.
Records obtained by FITSNews, however, indicate that April 22 was neither the beginning nor the end of a story that town officials appear to have gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal.
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“SHE REQUESTED THAT I FABRICATE A STORY…”
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On April 21, less than 24 hours before Jackson opened fire inside his own home, an incident report filed by the South Congaree Police Department (SCPD) confirmed approximately six law enforcement officers were deployed to the same address for a welfare check
It was purportedly relayed to authorities that Jackson was “hallucinating and possibly armed and was threatening to shoot people in and around his home.”
What investigative notes from an internal investigation allege, however, is that town administrator Crystal Bouknight later asked then-police chief Carl “CJ” Quinlan to “lie” about the councilman’s deteriorating mental condition and to keep the matter from the rest of council.
That account is supported by scanned exhibits incorporated into the same internal affairs file — authored by Quinlan — which not only identified Bouknight as the April 21 complainant but include screenshots of text messages she sent to him.
“Brian Jackson has called me and seems to be hallucinating,” one of Bouknight’s text messages to Quinlan read. “I am asking for someone to go out there.”
About that…
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The incident report separately confirmed that officers from both LCSD and SCPD converged at the councilman’s Ramblin Road home before 9:00 a.m. EDT. What they found inside prompted at least one South Congaree officer to describe Jackson’s living conditions as “deplorable.”
Quinlan, who later spoke with FITSNews, offered an even less charitable assessment of the councilman’s home, describing it as “atrocious,” “horrible” and “uninhabitable.”
He went further, estimating that “hundreds” of empty over-the-counter medication wrappers were littered across the floors of Jackson’s living room and bedroom, adding that officers also found a bottle of “prescribed narcotics” on the councilman himself.
That bottle, it turned out, had company.
“There were empty wine bottles everywhere,” Quinlan said. “Typical $9.99 pop tops, just finished off and tossed aside. I counted at least four wine bottles… Not including however many were outside.”
For all that officers encountered at the property, that same SCPD incident report noted Jackson passed “a series of accepted and widely used cognitive tests” administered by Quinlan himself. The report further stated Jackson “denied” medical attention.
With no legal grounds to compel further action, police records confirm Quinlan resorted to negotiating a voluntary weapons surrender with Jackson.
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“I asked if we could take all his weapons,” Quinlan told FITSNews. “[Jackson] said, ‘You’re not taking my guns.’ But then he said… ‘chief, I’ll give you my deer rifle.’ And I told him, ‘I appreciate that, because that’s the one that’ll go through our vests.’”
A report filed by a fellow South Congaree officer corroborated Quinlan’s account, confirming that Jackson’s .270 caliber rifle was removed from the home that morning.
It was sometime during that response that Bouknight called Quinlan. What followed, according to the investigative notes he authored, would become the most consequential exchange of the April 21 welfare check.
“While speaking with Bouknight, she requested that I fabricate a story that Jackson stated he was ‘going to kill himself’ so I could take action and involuntarily commit him,” the notes allege. “When I pushed back and stated I wasn’t going to lie, she stated, ‘Why not?’”
Per those same investigative notes, Bouknight told him that lying to commit someone is “what we do when we care about someone.” Quinlan replied to Bouknight that he “barely knew” Jackson and “wanted nothing to do with” falsifying a police report.
Bouknight, per the investigative notes, was not finished.
The town administrator allegedly instructed Quinlan to keep Jackson’s entire mental health episode between himself, Bouknight and councilwoman Debbie McIver, warning that no other council members could be “trusted to keep their mouth shut and not start talking.”
That account appears to be corroborated by the same internal affairs file, which, in addition to containing screenshots of text messages from Bouknight, includes a screenshot capturing one from McIver herself.
“Please only update Crystal and myself about Brian, not all of council,” McIver texted the chief at 9:29 a.m. EDT. “I don’t want certain people spreading rumors about him.”
Why Bouknight and McIver sought to keep Jackson’s deteriorating mental condition from the rest of council remains unclear. Their efforts to do so, however, all but collapsed the following morning, when Jackson unloaded three firearms at a phantom family he believed were inside his home.
But even that would not be his last run-in with law enforcement… before returning to town council without consequence.
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“ARMED WITH A FIREARM AND MAKING THREATS…”
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Not even seven days after shooting up his own home and being admitted to Three Rivers Behavioral Health, Jackson was the subject of yet another SCPD service call.
Per a subsequent incident report, that call came on April 29 – the same night town council entered a prolonged executive session to discuss an unrelated personnel matter that ultimately ended with Bouknight terminating Quinlan.
With that debate playing out at South Congaree Town Hall, police records placed Jackson miles from any treatment facility and back on Ramblin Road, once again armed and, per Quinlan’s investigative notes, threatening to “take out everybody” that put him in the facility.
The threats, if ever even made, proved futile that night. According to the incident report, Jackson was later located by two SCPD officers in a white Ford Mustang parked near a farm gate just down the road.
“Multiple officers stepped out with Jackson,” the report continues. “Officers explained the reason for the contact and observed Jackson to not be under any active mental health episode or displaying a weapon in a threatening manner.”
Officers cleared the scene shortly after, the report notes, “due to the unfound claim.”
What could not be as easily cleared was the question of Quinlan’s future, which dangled over the course of several special called council meetings before coming to a head on May 4, when council approved a motion directing Bouknight to take whatever personnel actions were deemed “in the best interest of the town.”
The motion passed 3-1, with Mayor Cindy Campbell casting the lone dissenting vote.
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RELATED | POLICE CHIEF FIRED FOR ‘UNSETTLING’ TOWN OFFICIALS
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The practical effect of the vote handed Bouknight the authority to terminate Quinlan, who at the time was conducting an internal affairs investigation that originated with a former officer Bouknight was alleged to be unduly close to — and quickly widened to alleged misconduct reaching into town hall itself.
A small portion of Quinlan’s investigative notes were cited in this report.
Quinlan was notified of his termination via email from Bouknight on May 11, 2026, although the letter she attached was backdated to May 8, 2026. He was not even 90 days into his tenure.
Within hours of Quinlan’s separation being made public, McIver offered her assessment on Facebook. Without naming names, she wrote that “poor decisions and manipulative behavior often lead to bad consequences,” adding: “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Jackson, by contrast, has faced no scrutiny whatsoever.
On May 19, 2026 following Quinlan’s ouster, Jackson took his seat at a regularly scheduled town council meeting and cast a successful vote to strip Mayor Campbell, a Quinlan supporter, of her authority to preside over council sessions.
“[Jackson] is a clear and present danger to the community and to himself,” Quinlan told FITSNews. “Yet town hall isn’t worried about a delusional man on narcotics who might open fire if Elvis walks through the door.”
Neither Bouknight nor McIver responded directly to a request for comment ahead of publication. Instead, the town’s spokesperson provided the following statement.
“While we wish former Chief Quinlan well, allegations do not become facts simply because they continue to be reframed. We are a small town; not a county, and we don’t participate in misinformation campaigns. For our elected officials and our Town staff, our focus remains where it belongs: on serving the residents of South Congaree.”
Write to Andrew Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.