COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – A bill to require the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate all police shootings in South Carolina is moving forward, but without a requirement to give victims’ families police dashcam video and autopsy results. Angie Hammond, mother of Zachary Hammond, asked senators Wednesday to adopt the amendment, but it was ruled non-germane to the bill, since the bill doesn’t mention police videos or autopsy results.
19-year-old Zachary Hammond was killed last July in Seneca during a police drug investigation. The officer who shot him initially said Hammond aimed his car at him and that he fired in fear for his life. But an autopsy commissioned by the family showed Hammond had been shot in the side and back, and when the police dashcam video was released after several months, it showed the officer firing into the car through the driver’s window as it sped past him, not toward him. The local solicitor has declined to press charges against the officer.
At the Statehouse Wednesday, Angie Hammond said, “We felt like we had to investigate Zach’s death, and as a mom I shouldn’t have had to do that. No mom should ever have to investigate their child’s death.”
She’s hoping the amendment to require the release of police dashcam video and autopsy results to victims’ families can be added to another bill that deals with the release of police dashcam video under the Freedom of Information Act.
