Armed military veteran exchanged gunfire with Horry County cops in fatal shooting: report
Armed with a long gun, Brandon Elliott ventured back into an Horry County swamp and away from the SWAT vehicle following him.
The officers who followed him into the knee-deep water pleaded for him to drop his gun. Instead, Elliott pointed it and fired. Almost immediately, a SWAT member and Horry County Sheriff’s Office deputy fired several rounds from his semi-automatic rifle.
“(Deputy Jack] Lee thought that Brandon Elliott was going to kill one of them, and he did not want that to happen,” Lee told investigators and detailed in a recently released report.
Lee shot Elliott, who staggered for a moment before collapsing. Officers tried to provide aid, but Elliott was dead 45 minutes later.
The 15th Judicial Circuit previously cleared Lee in the fatal, officer-involved shooting outside of Nichols in March. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division provided a copy of its investigative report after a Freedom of Information Act request.
Elliott grew up outside of Nichols and joined the U.S. Marine Corp in 2009. In 2010, he was deployed to Afghanistan. Within months an improvised explosive device exploded near Elliott’s vehicle, which caused a broken back in five places, a ruptured spleen and a lacerated liver.
The military awarded him a Purple Heart, and he was honorably discharged in 2013.
His family told investigators they believed Elliott, who was 30 years old when he died, had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He abused drugs and was committed for mental health care on several occasions. In January, Elliott wrote a “goodbye” letter to his parents.
Then, on March 25, 2019, Horry County police SWAT and a bloodhound tracking team responded to Creek Landing Road in Nichols. A resident called 911 and said Elliott shot the windows of his truck and his house. Elliott made threats that he was going to kill everyone and was running on the road shooting.
Elliott pointed his long gun at an officer, who tried to talk to him, and then fled into the woods. Initial reports were unclear if it was a rifle or a shotgun. It was later determined to be a Remington bolt-action rifle.
Police created a perimeter and searched for Elliott.
A bloodhound team went into the woods as officers heard several shots. Elliott came out of the woods, where officers told him to put his gun down. He went back into the woods, fired another shot and came out again.
As Elliott walked along Creek Landing Road, a SWAT vehicle and officers followed him. He then ran back into the woods, where four Horry County SWAT team members followed him.
Elliott was in knee-deep water and an officer yelled for him to drop his gun so they could talk. Elliott told the officers not to point their guns at him then fired a lone shot at an officer, who was behind a tree.
Lee then fired three or four rounds and shot Elliott.
Officers told him to show his hands, and Elliott used his right arm to lift his left arm then fell backward in the water. SWAT team members provided care and pulled Elliott from the water to drier land. He went to the hospital, where a doctor pronounced him dead, minutes after arriving.
“The [Elliott family] felt Brandon Elliott used law enforcement to kill himself because suicide was not acceptable,” SLED agents detailed in their report. “The family was concerned for the officer who shot Brandon Elliott, and they hold no ill will towards him.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2019 at 5:14 PM.
