YORK COUNTY, S.C. — The York County Sheriff's Office spoke out Wednesday in response to a recently filed lawsuit tied to the 2021 shooting of a man facing a mental health emergency.
Trevor Mullinax claims deputies wrongly took aim at him on May 7, 2021, while he was facing a mental health crisis.
Mullinax had a rifle on him while sitting in a pickup truck, but disputes a narrative from the sheriff's office that he waved it at deputies. Within seconds, deputies fired at him nearly 50 times, striking Mullinax nine times, according to his attorneys. Mullinax's mother, Tammy Beason, was with him at the time trying to console him from the driver's side door before the shots rang out, attorney say.
Body camera video, shared by Mullinax's attorneys, shows Beason running from the truck as the shots rang out.
The incident resulted in Mullinax being handcuffed before being taken away to a hospital for treatment, and eventually charged with pointing his gun at deputies, though Mullinax's attorneys deny those claims. That case is still ongoing.
In an initial 2021 press release, the York County Sheriff's Office said Mullinax --then unnamed -- fired at deputies. That allegation was later retracted.
The office did not provide much information about the shooting after it happened, saying an armed suspect was shot by deputies and taken to a hospital for treatment. While the sheriff's office said at the time more details would be later released, no further information was given.
During Wednesday's news conference, Sheriff Kevin Tolson said he would not be taking questions. He started by highlighting current statistics regarding fallen law enforcement officers.
"I have vowed to do everything in my power to ensure that the York County Sheriff's Office does not lose another police officer in the line of duty," Tolson said. "If a suspect pulls a weapon on a man or a woman wearing the badge that says the York County Sheriff's Office, that situation is not going to end well for that suspect."
Tolson said deputies responded to Mullinax's home with the knowledge he had active arrest warrants from the York Police Department for a reported violent felony, along with crimes against personal property. Their initial call, according to Tolson, indicated that Mullinax had a knife on him and was considering suicide.
However, Tolson claims despite verbal commands to show his hands, Mullinax picked up the gun inside his truck, and the four deputies who responded fired at him in fear for their own lives.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) opened an independent investigation into the shooting. In reviewing SLED's findings, the 16th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett decline to prosecute the officers in the case, saying the use of force was appropriate, "given the nature of the threat."
"As they approached his truck, Mr. Mullinax retrieved a shotgun from the rear seat of the truck and presented it or pointed it at the officers," Solicitor Brackett said. "The officers justifiably believed that Mr. Mullinax posed a threat to their lives and possibly the life of the woman standing near his vehicle door. Based on this reasonable assessment of the threat, they opened fire with their service weapons in self-defense...."
Based on findings from SLED's investigation, Tolson said, “Mullinax sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was transported to the hospital where he informed medical personnel that he wanted to shoot himself, but then decided to have the police do it, and he grabbed the gun when we arrived."
Tolson slammed against people he claimed sent hateful messages to his department. Tolson said some emails and phone calls from across the country included death wishes and foul names.
He said more should be done to address mental health, and citizens should demand legislators boost funding for services.
"Our county is experiencing a mental health crisis and it should not fall on police officers to be the first line of response for those going through distress related to mental health," Tolson said.
Tolson added that it's another responsibility on the plate for law enforcement. With the need for mental health professionals, situations like this have become more common.
"Police officers today are forced to take on so many different roles and they should not be the responsibility of law enforcement," Tolson said.
Licensed clinical health counselor Felice Hightower Britt told WCNC Charlotte it's a reality a lot of departments are facing.
"Officers are having to respond to more and more calls around these issues and often lack the clinical training to assess and help individuals," she said.
She believes more awareness and funding could be the difference in saving more lives before a crisis happens.
The sheriff also called on legislators to do more. He added law enforcement is often first to respond to mental health crises, noting that his deputies responded to 395 calls for suicide or attempted suicide between 2018 and 2022. In that same time frame, Tolson said York County deputies handled more than 1,200 well-being checks and handled more than 4,000 transports for mental health patients.
He ended his press conference with a challenge for critics.
"The York County Sheriff's Office is hiring deputies every day," he said. "Put in an application so that you can see firsthand what a police officer faces on a daily basis."
Mullinax is requesting a jury trial and to be awarded damages deemed fair by the jury for emotional, physical, and legal anguish lamented on him and his family. He's being represented in court by Justin Bamberg, who is also a South Carolina state representative and previously represented Travis Price in his wrongful arrest lawsuit against the city of Rock Hill.
Bamberg and fellow attorneys Taylor Bell and Adam Ness offered this statement in response to the news conference:
We agree with the York County Sheriff that mental health issues need more funding and public attention. In fact, that is one of the reasons that we filed this lawsuit.
The York County Sheriff acknowledged that his office has handled hundreds of suicide or welfare check calls over the years. Our question is, if this office handles so many of these calls, how did York County deputies handle this incident so poorly? We are certain that protocols and procedures were not followed.
It can't possibly be the policy of the York County Sheriff's Office to aggressively pull up directly in front of an individual who is having a well-documented mental health crisis, with guns drawn, and make a snap decision to fire 47 shots.
Where was the de-escalation?
What the York County Sheriff fails to acknowledge is that this shooting was completely unnecessary. In fact, Deputy Pence admitted that he stopped shooting when he saw Trevor's hands were up. Pence accounted for just five of the 47 shots that were fired.
To be clear, it is physically impossible to be shot multiple times in the back of the head when you are facing officers.
On the day of the shooting, Tammy Beason did tell SLED investigators that Trevor grabbed the shotgun, but did so when he saw deputies driving down Highway 324, not as officers pulled right up to the front of his truck.
Facts matter. And our pursuit for justice for Trevor Mullinax continues.