In October of 2011, members of the Darlington Drug Enforcement unit—a group supervised by Darlington County Sheriff Wayne Byrd—busted into the residence of Ernest “Boy” Russell, Jr. and killed him within five seconds of entry. Darlington County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Weatherford shot Russell as many as nine times in the head, neck, and face. Byrd explained that Russell had been running a “gambling business,” and that deputies executed a no-knock search warrant for that gambling, a misdemeanor crime in South Carolina. Byrd’s deputies executed this warrant in violent fashion on Byrd despite the fact that in Darlington, any citizen with a lick of sense knows that you can go place bets with white bookies in your favorite hamburger restaurant or even in the local grocery store.
Wayne Byrd and various other defendants are being sued by the estate of Russell. They’re being sued because the deputies were poorly trained and murdered a citizen of Darlington County in cold blood. “SLED,” the South Carolina law enforcement agency that investigates officer-involved shootings, cleared Ben Weatherford despite the fact that Ben Weatherford told an bold-faced lie to investigators about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. His lie was shown so clearly by video that Weatherford is currently unable to take his civil case to trial because he would have to perjure himself in order to testify.
Radley Balko of the Washington Post wrote about the case, and I broke the video on this site. Now, finally, the local media has reported on this case. Sheriff Wayne Byrd had this to say:
"To ensure a fair, unbiased investigation of the incident, and to eliminate any hint of favoritism or cover-up, I turned this matter over to SLED. They conducted a thorough investigation and sent their findings to the 11th Circuit Solicitor. After reviewing SLED's report the Solicitor cleared all the officers of any criminal wrongdoing. To try and use this tragedy to win an election is despicable and the lowest form of gutter level politics."
Let’s make no mistake about it. To discuss the reasons why a deputy murdered a Darlington County citizen, lied about it, and remained on the Darlington deputy force is not “gutter level politics.” It’s called holding accountable the public servants who are elected to protect the citizens of Darlington County. To ask why Wayne Byrd continues to employ Ben Weatherford, and continues to participate in racially incendiary tweeting with Ben Weatheford is not “gutter level politics.”
No. Killing citizens of Darlington County and covering up that crime is “gutter level law enforcement.”
And Byrd showing up distraught at my parents’ house to ask “what have I ever done to Coby to make him want to hurt me like this?” is gutter level manipulation.
What have you done? You trained and empowered your deputies to kill a black man in Darlington for a crime that’s so commonplace that you for a decade have eaten at the hamburger shack of the town’s biggest bookie. You saw the video of that crime and read the lie of your deputy, then kept him on the force. In fact, you promoted him, and you’ve continued to build a culture of destruction through your social media and lack of transparency.
And more insulting? You’ve accused the people trying to hold you accountable of engaging in “gutter level politics.”
You must be defeated on June 14th in the Democratic primary because you are an affront to public service and a dangerous sociopath.