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A knife-wielding man was killed by police in South Carolina during a confrontation on Memorial Day after his alleged girlfriend was found stabbed to death in a wheelchair.
The Landrum Police Department responded to the Bon Aire Apartments at approximately 4 a.m. Monday to find a woman dead in a wheelchair just outside an apartment, FOX Carolina reported.
The woman was later identified by the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office as 53-year-old Shana McClain. An initial exam reportedly showed she suffered multiple “sharp-edged injuries.”
Edwards and McClain were in a relationship, according to a statement his family gave to News 2.
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Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told FOX Carolina his deputies were called for additional assistance after the suspect, Freddie Edwards, 58, was holding a large butcher knife and refusing to follow officers’ demands to drop it.
Officers attempted to detain Edwards by using a Taser and a K-9 unit, Wright said, but he was not able to be subdued. Edwards then allegedly charged at law enforcement before two Spartanburg County deputies and a Landrum police officer shot him. He was pronounced dead at 4:39 a.m.
“We tried to deploy a taser on him, it didn’t work, we tried to deploy a dog, and it didn’t work. He started charging the officers and that’s when two of my deputies and a Landrum police officer shot,” Wright told News 2.
The sheriff told the outlet that law enforcement attempted to de-escalate the situation before shooting Edwards.
“I do know that after he was tased, he still fought through that. I’m not sure if both probes got in him, or not, we don’t know that yet,” he said. “The dog should have, in a normal situation, at least slowed him down a little bit.”
Edwards’ family told News 2 that even though he and McClain were living together and did not have a good relationship, they were still surprised to hear about Monday’s incident.
The deputies and the officer involved in the shooting did not suffer any injuries.
They have been placed on paid leave pending an investigation from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.