SC Attorney General: Scott Spivey would’ve been charged had he survived shooting
South Carolina’s attorney general and gubernatorial candidate said that he and his office are not “emotionally compromised” when it came to the investigation of a deadly roadside shooting and that if Scott Spivey survived, he would have been the one to be charged.
In a recent podcast with his cousin, Alan Wilson spoke about the 2023 shooting death of the 33-year-old North Carolina man in Horry County that was ruled self-defense by Wilson’s office based on the state “Stand Your Ground” law.
Wilson has been criticized for his office’s decision to not charge the two men, Weldon Boyd, a North Myrtle Beach restaurant owner, and Kenneth “Bradley” Williams. Boyd’s friendships and ties to the Horry County Police department allegedly affected the HCPD’s original investigation of the case, which resulted in an investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
A message left at Wilson’s office was not returned by publication.
In Saturday’s interview on Joel Wilson’s podcast, “The Political Pulse,” described as a conservative podcast for “engaging discussions and insights from the Right side,” Alan Wilson discussed the case, including the Stand Your Ground finding and a decision in October to send the case to 7th Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette for a second review.
Wilson said he asked Barnette to review any “new evidence or information” regarding SLED’s investigation of the HCPD’s handling of Spivey’s shooting death. Wilson said his office had already made a decision that the shooting was Stand Your Ground and that was final. However, he didn’t want to make a decision on SLED’s investigation into allegations of misconduct by the HCPD because his office would have to work with the department again.
Barnette has been asked to review the HCPD investigation for possible “blind spots” and make an independent decision, Wilson said.
“I don’t have any personal bias one way or the other,” Wilson said. “It is not lost on me that a man lost his life. I have great sympathy for the family of Mr. Spivey. So anything I say is not to denigrate his memory. I don’t want to pick that scab. I want to be very respectful to the family.
“I don’t have friends to reward or enemies to punish.”
Wilson said he wanted to be careful about discussing the case as there is still an ongoing civil matter. Spivey’s sister, Jennifer Foley, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Boyd and Williams in 2024. The case is awaiting a hearing regarding the Stand Your Ground statute, which will determine whether the case will move forward or if the two men will be granted immunity. Foley has led the charge in seeking justice for her brother and bringing attention to law enforcement’s interpretation of the state’s Stand Your Ground law.
The hearing was expected to be on Dec. 15, but after a motion hearing last month, it appears that the court date will be delayed.
Wilson said the Attorney General’s Office’s decision of self-defense was made based on “facts and legal standards.”
Police have said that Boyd followed Spivey for nine miles along Highway 9 before the fatal shooting occurred. Police reports show the confrontation first began when Spivey was driving erratically, waving his gun outside his truck window and pointing his gun at Boyd and Williams.
However, Wilson said that there is “zero” evidence that Boyd chased Spivey for nine miles before shooting him along Camp Swamp Road in the Longs area. “Were they driving along the same highway? Yes,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that many of the things that are being said in the media and online are not true. He wasn’t shot 15 times and in the back, but rather Spivey died from a shot that entered under his arm, Wilson said.
“They did not know each other, they were not in a bar, they weren’t fighting over a girl,” Wilson said about the reasons for the shooting.
Instead, Wilson said Spivey was the initial aggressor, having pointed a gun at Boyd and trying to run him off the road, as well as other drivers, before the deadly shooting occurred.
“At that roadside, had Mr. Spivey not been shot and survived, he would have been the one charged with a felony, for driving under the influence and brandishing a firearm,” Wilson said. “That is the facts. Unfortunately, he was killed.”
Boyd had called 911 on the day of the shooting, telling dispatchers that “if he keeps this up, I’m going to shoot him.” The two men followed Spivey until he pulled off onto Camp Swamp Road, where Boyd and Williams claim he got out of his truck and shot at them before they returned fire.
Stand Your Ground is not a defense, “it’s an immunity,” Wilson said. He said if Boyd and Williams were to lose in the Stand Your Ground hearing, they could still assert self-defense.
Wilson said he is not defending judgment calls made by Boyd and Williams, including things that were said about the shooting days and weeks later “that were inappropriate.”
Boyd and his passenger shot through the windshield, Wilson said, adding that “they didn’t have time to aim or get out. (It) happened so fast.”
And although everyone is talking about it, in the end, the evidence in the civil case, the SLED case and from the appointed solicitor “will come out,” Wilson said.
The state’s top attorney also said he would be willing to do town halls and talk to people “who are very angry” over decisions that have been made.
