The Carolinas | Man dies in inner tube accident

South Carolina

SALEM

Man dies in inner tube accident

Authorities say a 21-year-old North Carolina man died while riding an inner tube on a South Carolina lake after the rope towing the tube got tangled around his neck.

Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis said Sunday that Brandon Godfrey of Hope Mills, N.C., died about an hour after he was found unconscious in Lake Jocassee.

Addis says Godfrey was on an inner tube with another man Saturday when the rope broke and he was found floating face down in the water.

He died at the hospital about an hour later.

The coroner says Godfrey had a large cut on his neck and it appears he got tangled with the rope.

An autopsy will be conducted todayto determine exactly what happened.

LAURENS

Man sought after shooting death

Authorities are searching for a man charged with killing another man who was found dead outside a South Carolina home.

Laurens County Sheriff Ricky Chastain told multiple media outlets that a warrant was issued Saturday for 30-year-old Samuel G. Mosley.

Chastain says Mosley shot and killed 43-year-old Albert W. Hoyte and wounded a woman on Friday night at a home near Laurens

The sheriff says Hoyte and the woman ran out of the house in opposite directions and deputies found Hoyte dead in the yard of a nearby home.

Chastain says another man in the home was charged with obstruction of justice after lying to investigators and withholding information.

ORANGEBURG

Fight over bath preceded deaths

A friend of the South Carolina woman charged with killing her children said she fought with the children's grandmother over who would give the youngest child a bath hours before they were slain.

Chea Phelps told The State of Columbia that Shaquan Renee Duley called her crying and upset on Aug. 15, saying she was leaving the home she shared with her mother, sister and five young children because "she was fed up."

Authorities said hours later Duley took her 2-year-old and 18-month-old sons to a rundown motel in Orangeburg and suffocated them, then strapped them into their car seats the next morning and let the vehicle roll into the North Edisto River to try and cover up the deaths.

Duley, 29, is charged with two counts of murder and remains in jail awaiting a bond hearing.

Her attorney has said there is more to what happened with her children than investigators have reported, but has refused to give details.

Phelps said she told Duley to come to her fiance's house and bring the boys, but she never showed up.

WEST COLUMBIA

Shooting was murder-suicide, police say

Investigators say a South Carolina man forced his way into the home of his ex-wife's boyfriend and killed him before driving away and committing suicide.

West Columbia Police Capt. Seth Zeigler says 28-year-old Gerald Heyward Copeland shot 39-year-old Clyde Jacob Yarborough several times Sunday morning after breaking out a window in the back door of Yarborough's home.

Zeigler says Copeland's ex-wife was also in the home, but wasn't hurt.

Richland County deputies say Copeland was found dead several miles away in a car suffering from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police say the couple had been separated for several months and they are investigating whether Copeland and Yarborough had previous confrontations.

North Carolina

OREGON INLET

People want new OBX bridge now

North Carolina officials have received more than 4,000 comments on what to do with an aging bridge linking the Outer Banks to the mainland.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reported Sunday just nine comments opposed the state Department of Transportation's wish to begin replacing the Bonner Bridge as soon as possible.

DOT spokesman Drew Joyner says the comments will weigh heavily as state and federal officials decide whether to do more studies or start planning a replacement for the only bridge linking the southern Outer Banks to the rest of the state.

Some environmental groups want more study to see if a 17-mile bridge that would bypass a wildlife refuge is a better alternative.

Joyner says comment from interest groups aren't included in the public comment total.

GREENSBORO

Officers involved in shooting

Officials in a North Carolina city say police officers shot and killed an armed man who refused to drop his gun, then pointed the weapon at them.

Greensboro police told multiple media outlets the incident began as a call about a man with a gun around 5:20 a.m. Saturday.

Authorities say the officers told the man to drop the gun several times, but instead he pointed the weapon at police.

The man died at the scene of the shooting. His name has not been released.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether police were justified in the shooting.