Man Wanted For Killing Pregnant Woman And Toddler In Rochester Shot By South Carolina Police
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Police in South Carolina shot and wounded a man who was wanted in Minnesota for killing his pregnant girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter and headed south planning to kill another woman, authorities said.
Officers in South Carolina got Renard Lydell Carter's former girlfriend to a safe place and then found Carter in a Columbia hotel Sunday, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
Carter told the 15 officers outside the hotel that he had a rifle and was going to shoot them. Then he came out with a BB gun that looked like a real rifle and pointed it at officers, three of whom fired at him, Lott said at a news conference.
"He was shot multiple times. But he is still alive," Lott said.
Police in Rochester, Minnesota, said Carter, 29, killed 23-year-old Keona Sade Foote and 2-year-old Miyona Zayla Miller. They were found dead around 1:45 p.m. Sunday, about eight hours before officers found Carter in South Carolina, Rochester police said in a statement.
Carter was broadcasting on Facebook Live when he confronted the officers and Lott said he reviewed that footage along with one body camera from the scene.
"The officers did fire their weapons as they should have," said Lott, who did not release any video footage, saying it was too early in the investigation.
The only weapon found on Carter was the BB rifle, which Lott held up at his news conference. It did not have any markings to differentiate it from a regular rifle.
Carter is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder of an unborn child in Minnesota. Lott said he won't face charges in South Carolina and the extradition process will start after he leaves the hospital, where he is being guarded as he recovers.
Authorities did not know if he had a lawyer.
The State law Enforcement Division typically investigates police shootings in South Carolina, but one of its agents, Salvatore Cirencione, along with Lexington County Sheriff's Sgt. Aaron Poole and investigator Frank Ramunni, fired shots, so Richland County deputies were asked to investigate, the sheriff said.
The shooting was the end of a violent weekend for police in South Carolina.
In Aiken, a man who officers were trying to stop to question about the killings of two people shot at police, who fired back wounding him, authorities said.
A deputy in York County shot a man after he opened fire on a police car Saturday morning as officers arrived to investigate the reported beating of a pregnant woman, authorities said.
Two men in Spartanburg County were arrested for firing at deputies in cars filling out paperwork Sunday morning, investigators said. No one was injured.
And at Allen University in Columbia, a university police officer shot a man Friday afternoon after the man pointed a gun at him, investigators said. Both the man and the officer were hurt, but not seriously.
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