South Carolina Self Defense: Sheriff: No charges after driver kills man who pointed gun :: 08/14/2021

SPARTANBURG, S.C.

A driver fired in self-defense when he killed an aggressive driver who pointed a gun at him during a road rage altercation, authorities in South Carolina said.

Investigators determined the unidentified shooter acted lawfully, even though he did not immediately report the incident, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said during a news conference while outlining the events that led to the Aug. 5 death of Travis Antonio Draper, 41, of Pacolet.

“We’ve called everyone we know asking if there is any way or any reason how we can charge somebody in this case,” Wright said, according to news outlets. “There is no code of laws that I’ve been made aware of that we can charge this young man. He did this in self-defense. ‘Do I like it? No.’”

Wright said Draper was on his way to work around 6 a.m. on Highway 295 and stopped at a red light. It was then that Draper and another driver had a verbal altercation about that driver being too close to Draper’s vehicle, Wright said.

Wright said the men continued driving down Highway 295 and the argument continued. Both men began to speed up and drive aggressively, he said.

Surveillance video shows Draper chasing the other vehicle through an intersection and almost hitting a vehicle not involved, the sheriff said. Draper then pulled alongside the other driver and pointed a gun at him, Wright said. That's when the other driver pulled his gun and fired, hitting Draper under his armpit.

Draper died at the scene.

According to Wright, the other driver left the area and went to work. After telling his wife what happened, they contacted an attorney who notified the sheriff's office, he said.

Wright said he wished the driver, whose name has not been released, would have called law enforcement after discharging his weapon. There are no laws that required the shooter to immediately report the incident, he said.

He said the evidence “clearly shows Mr. Draper was the aggressor by coming up by this guy, passing on the wrong side of oncoming traffic and driving through the median very aggressively to get up with him.”

Wright said race was not a factor in the incident. Draper was Black, and the man who shot him is white, Wright said.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/south-carolina/article253480179.html