They should be charged. They recklessly endangered those two women.
No question. If in fact they drove around a barrier (a criminally negligent act) they should be charged with involuntary manslaughter. And as if the state doesn’t have enough problems, the lawsuit is going to be a monster. I also have to wonder about the deputies’ states of mind as they sat on top of the van, no doubt hearing those women pounding to get out as the water rose, until there was silence. It’s a goddamned nightmare and a tragedy for everyone involved.
I wonder if we’ve heard the full story on this one. It seems too pat.
Neither woman has an arrest record in South Carolina, according to documents obtained from state police. Their names also yielded no records in the Horry County jail and court index systems.
WTF does a potential arrest record have to do with anything?
Thompson said he did not think the women were in restraints in the back of the van, noting that restraints are used for combative patients “and I understand they were not.”
Just because restraints are used for combative patients does not mean that they are not used for uncombative patients.
This stinks. I smell a cover up.
Yeah! What about the two deputies? Does either of them have an arrest record? Has anyone even looked into it?
Per Trump, these are fake deaths. Apparently, unless one is killed by the rush of wind and water during the actual storm itself, it never happened.
Thompson told reporters that deputies appear to have driven around a barrier blocking the road but the investigation is ongoing.
“It hasn’t been confirmed to me that they did, but here’s my question: There’s barriers there. It could be assumed that he did,” Thompson said Wednesday.
At least the Sheriff isn’t making excuses . . . at this point.
This was totally and completely unnecessary. Whether or not there were barriers, why would they need to be moved during a freaking hurricane?
At this point the hurricane is over, they are now in an active flooding situation. Small distinction but…
I quite agree; something is seriously fishy here. The NYT has these women voluntarily coming in for mental support; why the handcuffs and locked van??? To what purpose, when they were clearly safe in place, were they being transported? While I don’t normally endorse this, I would find the entire story more credible if the deputies had drowned while attempting rescue.
Law requires “a law enforcement officer, preferably in civilian clothes and preferably with crisis intervention training, to take into custody and transport the person to the hospital designated by the certification.”"
Does it require that the transfer take place despite “hell or high water”? Does it require that lives be risked?
With a post-hurricane flood in full rampage, why were they making ANY transfers of ANY persons that were not 100% essential to public safety or the physical health of the persons moving? Does “shelter in place” mean anything to them?
I’m a trained first responder, and if asked to transfer patients under post-hurricane conditions, with flood warnings all over the place and rapidly changing which routes were available, I wouldn’t do it. It’s not worth risking MY LIFE.
They did more than that. Their recklessness caused two deaths. That’s manslaughter.