Former SC police chief pleads guilty to robbing Pawleys Island bank in 2019
The former police chief of a small South Carolina town has pleaded guilty to robbing a bank, according to a news release from the office of Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson.
Former Williamston police chief Richard Edward Inman, 52, pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in the Pawleys Island area.
Keith Powell, an assistant solicitor, prosecuted the case. Judge Steven H. John sentenced Inman to 15 years, but he could wind up serving only five years in prison followed by five years of probation.
Inman, of Fountain Inn, S.C., entered a Bank of America branch off of U.S. Highway 17 near Pawleys Island in March of 2019 and presented a bank teller with a note stating he was armed. He demanded money and fled the bank with the cash.
The robbery led to a police chase that ended with Inman being shot and apprehended by law enforcement on U.S. 17 in the McClellanville area.
The Washington Post reported that Inman resigned from his position as police chief in 2011 over offensive Facebook posts.
Inman claimed his personality changed after he had surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his brain, according to the Washington Post story.
“I had the surgery, and it’s just like the wheels came off,” Inman said. “It’s just — every decision I made was bad. And it had an impact on me, you know, on my family life, on my career.”
