Crime Beat 10/07/09 | Crime | Summerville Journal Scene

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Crime Beat 10/07/09

Published Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:48 PM

By David Berman
Summerville Journal Scene ®

Man threatens deputies with grenade

A military veteran threatened Dorchester County sheriff’s deputies with a grenade last Thursday after they were dispatched to his Ladson apartment for a possible hostage situation, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office received a call about 9 a.m. from a suicide hotline saying the man was holding his caretaker hostage with a knife, Maj. John Garrison said.

Deputies responded to Cooper’s Ridge Apartments on Ladson Road minutes later and the caretaker “was turned loose pretty much immediately,” he said.

The man told the deputies he had a knife and a hand grenade that they believed was a live, Garrison said. Residents in adjacent apartments were evacuated and the deputies began negotiations.

During the talks, the man said he wanted to hurt himself and that if the deputies came into the room, he would drop the grenade and it would “kill us all,” an incident report says.

He later admitted that the grenade wasn’t real and agreed to disconnect the blasting cap, the report says.

Garrison said the man was taken into custody and then transported him to an area hospital for evaluation. The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called in to handle the grenade. The explosive material had apparently been removed, he said.

No charges were filed.

“His mental well-being is more important than criminal charges at this point,” Garrison said after the incident.

Man flees from moving ambulance

A Summerville man wrestled with a paramedic and jumped from a moving ambulance into traffic Sept. 30, all after he had agreed to a voluntary EMS transport, according to a police report.

The events started with the man going in a convenience store on U.S. 78 and telling the clerk that “everything was wrong” and he needed the police, the report says.

He was later located at a restaurant on North Main Street. He agreed to go voluntarily to Summerville Medical Center and speak with a doctor, the report says. He did not resist as the paramedics put him on a stretcher.

While en route, however, the police officer — who was asked to follow along — saw the ambulance abruptly pull into the median on the Berlin G. Myers Parkway. The door opened and he could see the man trying to get out as a paramedic tried to keep him inside, the report says.

The man ran across the parkway, despite the officer’s demands to stop, the report says. The officer fired his Taser at the man, but he pulled the probes out and continued to run.

Other officers helped form a perimeter and the K-9 search team was brought in, but they didn’t find the man.

Check writer needs education

Pinewood Preparatory School is not affiliated with Dorchester District 2, but the writer of two fraudulent checks drawn from the school’s account apparently didn’t know that, a sheriff’s office report shows.

Pinewood’s chief financial officer received a call Sept. 28 from the school’s bank to verify the $1,045 and $1,065 checks. She was unaware of the checks and told the bank that they must be fraudulent, the report says.

She then requested copies of the checks, which appeared to have been printed because they listed Dorchester District 2’s Boone Hill Road district office as the return address, the report says. Pinewood is a private school and has no affiliation with District 2 or that address, she said.

The suspect had forged her signature, she said. According to the report, the bank did not find Pinewood liable for the funds.

Maybe the makings of meth

While working on the sewer system off McMakin Drive Sept. 28, a county water authority employee stumbled across a cooler filled with what he believed were the ingredients for methamphetamine.

The cooler had a padlock on it but was not locked, the sheriff’s office report says. It was located in a wooded area. Inside, the reporting deputy found a small propane cylinder, a slat canister and what appeared to be a peroxide bottle, the report says.

A narcotics detective was called in to contain the scene.

Contact David Berman at 873-9424 ext. 214 or dberman@journalscene.com

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