6 dead in S.C. domestic dispute
A South Carolina man in a child custody dispute with a former girlfriend broke into her parents’ home and fatally shot the woman, her parents and two children, police said. The man then killed himself.
Investigators found the bodies of six people ranging in age from 9 to 51 when they responded Tuesday to a call from a man who said he was thinking about hurting himself but hung up.
Greenwood County Sheriff Tony Davis identified the man who fired the shots as 27-year-old Bryan Sweatt. Davis said Sweatt felt that the woman wasn’t allowing him to see their infant child often enough. The infant was not among the dead.
Investigators believe Sweatt broke into the home and then laid in wait for the victims to return, Davis said, adding that the shootings appeared to be executions.
The victims were Richard Fields, 51; his wife, Melissa Fields, 49; their daughter Chandra Fields, 26; and two of the couple’s grandchildren who lived with them: William Robinson, 9; and Tariq Robinson, 11.
SWAT team members who entered the house found the bodies in three different rooms.
“Once you see a grisly scene like this it never leaves you,” Davis said.
Officials and witnesses say Sweatt set free several other children who were visiting at the home where the shootings happened. Davis said while police were on their way, a concerned neighbor called 911 saying four children from that address had arrived at her neighboring house and told her a shot had been fired.
After about an hour and “several unsuccessful attempts” by officers to make contact with anyone in the home, the SWAT team entered and discovered the bodies, authorities said.
Sweatt has a lengthy arrest record that dates back nearly a decade, according to state police records. Most of his charges were related to property crimes, such as burglary or forgery, although he was arrested once on aggravated assault charges.
He was supposed to be in court Tuesday on a burglary charge, Davis said. The sheriff didn’t have many details about the hearing, but said Sweatt faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
On Thursday morning, yellow police tape surrounded the one-story home on a rural stretch of road south of Greenwood, a city of about 23,000 in northwestern South Carolina, about 80 miles from the state capital of Columbia.
