Aiken County deputies kill suspect in shoot-out on Hamelin Road
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office has called in the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to investigate an officer-involved shooting.
Investigators say around 2:47 a.m., Sunday, deputies were called to the 300 block of Hamelin Road north of Aiken to investigate a person threatening neighbors with a firearm.
When deputies arrived, investigators say they encountered 49-year-old Christopher H. Whittle who was barricaded and firing rounds from the residence.
SWAT and negotiators responded.
During that time, Aiken County Sheriff’s Office SSGT. Stephen Shunn tells News 12 that the suspect was shot and killed. No deputies were injured.
News 12 spoke to his family who is heartbroken and in shock after what happened.
The suspect’s uncle, Raymond Harvey Fulmer Jr., told News 12 the whole family grew up in Aiken.
“It’s 350 acres in here,” he said. “And my great great granddad, his house was right across the road there.”
Fulmer said they Chris as someone who was quiet, humble and loved his family.
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“He was a good little boy when he was young, coming up. He was in school and he loved hunting, he loved fishing,” Fulmer said. “He also loved fast cars. which is a family thing. Everybody in the family is mechanic.”
But he adds that Chris ended up going down the wrong path later in his life.
“He got messed up, got on the wrong side and got tangled up in these drugs,” he said. “And it’s just pitiful how it can take a person’s mind over and alter them, alter their dispositions totally.”
His family believes that could have led up to what happened.
He said the officers “did what they had to do.”
“I don’t blame any of them,” he said”. And I don’t want any of them to take this as being their fault. It happened. It was something they had to do to keep somebody else from getting hurt.”
Fulmer warns other families about the impact drugs can have.
“We need to try to keep it from getting to our young people,” he said. “We don’t need that. Whatever we can do. I don’t care if you’re young or old to stop it, we need to do it. The law enforcement only come after the fact, they can’t do it before.”
The investigation is now being handled by SLED and the Aiken County Coroner’s Office.
The incident in Aiken County was the 33rd officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2023 and the second for the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office this year.
In 2022, there were 32 officer-involved shootings in South Carolina. The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office had four last year.
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