If not for the presence of the gun

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While I was waiting to get some blood tests done at Lexington Medical Center and reading my iPad, I tweeted this:

Then I got the blood drawn, and went to Radiology for my chest x-ray. All of it being routine follow-up on my long COVID case. After I had checked in for that and was waiting to be called back for the x-ray, I got a couple of texts from my wife. She said:

So, we sat and ate our lunch behind… little cricket because there’s an active shooter thing going on in our neighborhood. But finally we came on in because it’s located in the Apartments. So, it’s OK if you come home.

The “we” in the text was her and two of our grandchildren, who had spent their first morning off from school at our house. “Little Cricket” is the convenience store where you turn off Sunset Boulevard to get to our subdivision.

I called her immediately, and she said there were about 25 emergency vehicles in the area, but they were letting people into the subdivision, but not letting them go to Quail Hollow Apartments or the nearby gated community, Hulon Green.

I got my x-ray and headed straight home. All of the abovementioned places are within about a mile of the hospital. At the roundabout at the main entrance to Quail Hollow, two cops were waving people into the subdivision, but blocking them from heading right — toward Hulon and the apartments. I asked what was going on, and got an incomplete answer, to the effect that yeah, that area was still blocked off.

I had to wind around a sheriff’s vehicle and some others to get into the neighborhood. A car marked with WIS livery was stopped on the side of the road, which made me glad I’d called the paper to make sure they knew about it back before my x-ray. Yeah, I still do things like that.

Details are still coming in, but this latest version of The State’s story has a good bit more than we knew when I called:

Lexington police shoot at armed man after mental health call, 1 dead, investigators say

By David Travis Bland and Morgan Hughes
Updated June 03, 2022 2:27 PM

A mental health crisis call turned into a fatal shooting near a Lexington County neighborhood on Friday, according to the sheriff’s department.

The shooting happened in the area of Feather Run Trail and Quail Hollow, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said. Police are still in the area.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher told The State that one man died during the incident and that deputy coroners are at the scene. The identity of the deceased man has not been released.

The department said that a 911 caller reported a mental health patient with a handgun was threatening to shoot family members and himself. When police arrived, the man ran into some woods and fired at pursuing officers. The officers fired back.

The sheriff’s department did not say if the officers shot the man.

However, the department did say “there is no active threat to the community.”

“As we can, we are letting people come and go from the area,” the department said….

When I first learned that the man was evidently dead, I texted the reporter to say that while I had been far more worried about other things — such as the safety of my family — I had not wanted that to happen, either. “Yeah,” he responded. “Shootings never cease to suck.”

I wrote back:

They never cease, period. That guy would be safe in mental health care if not for the presence of the gun…

One last thing I should mention: This incident will not add to that count I mentioned at the top of this post. It wasn’t a “multiple…”

At 3:46, much of the area had been opened to traffic, but I think this is where the shooting occurred…

… and these other vehicles were blocking that area from another direction.

 

3 thoughts on “If not for the presence of the gun”

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    Some more details from WACH:

    WEST COLUMBIA, SC (WACH) — A man is dead after a gunfire exchange with police in the area of Feather Run Trail and Quail Hollow after police responded to a mental health call involving a gun, Lexington Sheriff’s Department said.

    According to LCSD, a 911 caller reported that 19-year-old Tyler Mehki Sincere Boages, a mental health patient, was threatening to shoot family members and himself.

    When officers arrived at the scene, Boages ran away from the scene with a handgun.

    Boages ran into the woods and fired shots at officers.

    Officers shot back at the suspect, according to LCSD.

    Officials say Boages was out on bond in Richland County in connection to a 2021 murder and had an ankle monitor on….

    The murder case in which he was charged also, of course, involved a gun…

    Reply ↓
  2. Brad Warthen Post author

    Here’s the WIS version:

    WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Investigators from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) said Friday’s shooting ended with the suspect dead after an exchange of gunfire.

    A 9-1-1 call sent West Columbia Police and LCSD to the scene near Feather Run Trail after a mother called about her 19-year-old son. He was reported to have a mental issue and was threatening his brother with a gun.

    “This incident started after a 911 caller reported a menthal health patient in her family was threatening to shoot family members and himself at an apartment off Feather Run Trail,” said Sheriff Jay Koon.

    Investigators identified the man as Tyler Mehki Sincere Boages. The Lexington County Coroner, Margaret Fisher, said he died of multiple gunshots to the upper body. Koon said that Boages was a murder suspect out on bond.

    Richland County Judge Jocelyn Newman set a $75,000 surety bond in July 2021.

    Boages posted it in September 2021. It’s unclear what the other conditions of his bond were or how he got access to a gun.

    Koon explained, “As officers arrived, he ran away from the scene. The subject ran into some nearby woods where, after officers ordered him to drop his gun, he fired shots at officers. Officers then returned fire.”

    The officers were not hit in the exchange. Four deputies and two officers have been placed on administrative leave.

    Investigators said the weapon used by the suspect was a handgun with an extended magazine, it is currently unknown how he got access to the weapon….

    I don’t know what is meant, precisely, by “handgun with an extended magazine.” But I’m quite sure that it’s not a good thing that he had it…

    Reply ↓
    1. James Edward Cross

      Also known as a high-capacity magazine or large-capacity magazine, it is a firearm magazine capable of holding more than the standard number of rounds provided by the designer. It may also be defined as high-capacity in a legal sense, based on the number of cartridges that is normally allowed by law in a given jurisdiction for a given firearm.

      Reply ↓

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