CHARLESTON, S.C. — A man suspected of wounding a South Carolina sheriff ’s deputy was shot and killed by police when he emerged from an apartment Thursday shooting at officers, Charleston’s police chief said.
The dead man, identified as 32-year-old Jerome Thomas Caldwell of Mount Pleasant, had earlier holed up for 10 hours in apartments in a public housing complex in Charleston’s historic district.
He was in phone contact with police and “during negotiations he made several statements that would indicate to us that he was intent on either harming someone else or himself,” Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a news conference near the scene.
Mullen said the standoff began when a State Law Enforcement Division agent arrived at the apartment about 3:45 a.m. Thursday to serve Caldwell with a warrant on attempted-murder charges.
The suspect was initially in one apartment, then entered a second after which he kicked in a wall to enter a third, Mullen said.
About 1:45 p.m. Caldwell stepped out of the back door of the apartment complex and shot at officers and they returned fire, the chief said.
Berkeley County Sheriff Butch Henerey said authorities received a tip last weekend and a subsequent DNA match led to the identification of Caldwell as a suspect in the wounding of Berkeley County sheriff’s Lt. Will Rogers on May 14.