COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A sheriff’s deputy in South Carolina has killed himself using his service weapon while on duty.
The State reports Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced Monday that 28-year-old Senior Deputy Derek Fish shot himself Friday in his patrol car behind Region 3 headquarters after finishing a shift.
Sheriff Lott held the news conference with approval from Fish’s family to discuss the death and suicide prevention. He says Fish, who joined the agency in 2011 and was promoted last week to master deputy, didn’t leave a note or communicate his intentions to anybody.
Fish’s death was the third suicide of a Richland deputy in 20 years, and the first since 2007.
The U.S. Department of Justice says each year more officers die by suicide than are killed in the line of duty.