South Carolina Briefs: Inmate sues, gangs shoot own members and more

Inmate sues former jail guard for alleged excessive force

BAMBERG (AP) - An inmate with mental health issues including schizophrenia has sued a former South Carolina county jail guard over allegedly using excessive force.

On Monday, attorneys for Tieresias Ephram said they had filed a civil lawsuit accusing Isaac Jackson of gross negligence, civil assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Attorneys say Ephram was being held in the Bamberg County jail on shoplifting charges in 2019 when Jackson threw him into a window and door to try to force him into a cell. Ephram's head split open, and his attorneys say he required emergency medical care.

Attorneys say Ephram has suffered from disorders including schizophrenia, hallucinations and paranoia since 2000. A judge subsequently ruled Ephram mentally incompetent to stand trial on his shoplifting charges.

Two months after the incident, state police charged Jackson with misconduct in office, and that case is still pending. A working number for Jackson could not be found Monday.

Richland sheriff: Gangs in fight hurt, shoot own members

COLUMBIA (AP) - Two rival motorcycle gangs ended up shooting and hurting their own members when a fight broke out in the parking lot of a South Carolina motorcycle shop, authorities said.

Surveillance video released Monday by Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott shows five gang members piling on each other during the fight Thursday afternoon outside Capital City Cycles in Columbia.

A man with a cane is seen wildly swinging at people on the ground, and Lott said the man ended up striking the fatal blows on a fellow gang member who had already been shot.

Many of the gunshot wounds and other injuries in the fight were inflicted by gang members on their own people, the sheriff said.

"The fighting, stabbing, shooting and beating was all in progress when the deputies got there," Lott said.

Deputies are still trying to sort through what all happened and file appropriate charges, the sheriff said.

"Everybody who was part of this melee is going to be charged," Lott said.

Investigators aren't sure if the gangs planned to be at the motorcycle shop at the same time or just happened to arrive at the same time. The sheriff refused to give the names of the gangs at his Monday news conference.

"I don't want to give them publicity," Lott said. "They don't deserve it."

Sheriff Lott: Man kills brother and mother of brother's child

COLUMBIA (AP) - Deputies are trying to figure out why a South Carolina man shot and killed his brother as well as the mother of his brother's child, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.

One body was found early Saturday in Richland County and the other body was found in Aiken County several hours later, Lott said.

Ashli Haigler was found dead in a vehicle in Columbia and her 5-year-old child was in the car, the sheriff said.

Deputies began looking for the child's father and got a call from Aiken County deputies that Rufus Carmichael had been found dead on the side of a road near Batesburg, Lott said.

Officers went to the home of Carmichael's brother Charles Carmichael and arrested him after finding a gun and a vehicle covered in blood, Lott said.

Deputies in both counties are trying to determine where Rufus Carmichael was killed and why his brother attacked him and the mother of his child, the sheriff said.

It wasn't known if Charles Carmichael had a lawyer.

Two people are found dead inside home near Greenville

GREENVILLE (AP) - Two people have been found dead inside a home near Greenville, authorities said.

Both were found dead Saturday inside a Greenville County home, WSPA-TV reported.

Deputies were sent to the home after a 911 call stating that a woman had been shot, authorities said.

Deputies thought that at least one other person was still inside the residence, and SWAT was requested. After they entered the home, they found the dead male and female inside.

The sheriff's office is investigating the killings as a murder-suicide.

Two children were inside the residence at the time but were not injured, authorities said.

Few other details were immediately available.