COLUMBIA, S.C. – A lawsuit has been filed against the York County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina by a man alleging that the deputies fired at him nearly 50 times during a mental health crisis while he was seated in a parked truck with a shotgun in his lap, despite his claim that he had his hands up.
In May of 2021, Trevor Mullinax survived being hit nine times, including three head wounds, as stated in the lawsuit filed earlier this month.
Police dashcam footage released by Mullinax’s attorneys revealed that the four sheriff’s deputies began firing only a few seconds after arriving on the scene and shouting “Hands!” multiple times.
During a press conference on Tuesday, attorney Justin Bamberg stated, “Those officers went out there like John Wayne cowboys. They came out there like gunslingers.”
The four deputies who fired at Mullinax were not charged by prosecutors who reviewed the case. The officers claimed that they witnessed Mullinax reaching back to the truck’s rear seat, retrieving the shotgun, and pointing it at them, according to a letter from Solicitor Kevin Brackett clearing the officers.
