Sheriff’s office blames spokesman for shooting contradiction

GREENVILLE, S.C. – A sheriff’s office in South Carolina says a deputy who shot a homeowner last month through a window never said the man opened his front door with a gun.

Greenville County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jimmy Bolt said Tuesday that was a mistake made by another spokesman just hours after the June 14 Simpsonville shooting.

Body camera footage released Monday shows the deputy shoot at a man holding a gun in his foyer through a narrow window beside the closed door. The officer was investigating a medical alarm just after midnight.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ryan Flood told reporters at the scene Dick Tench jerked open the door and showed the gun. Bolt said in a statement the deputy who fired never said that.

The shooting remains under investigation. Tench wasn’t charged.