GOOSE CREEK, SC – The sister of a man who shot a sheriff’s deputy in Berkeley County Friday spoke to spoke to WCBD.
The suspect, Travis Smith, killed himself in a standoff Friday. Smith’s sister, Melissa Shields says, “It’s been hard. (He) was my brother, and I love him dearly.”
Smith shot and injured Deputy Kimber Gist behind the Food Lion on Redbank Road in Goose Creek.
“My brother texted me. He told me he had been shot… He knew what he had done, and he felt that there was no way he could come back from that. He felt there was no way out. And I honestly felt that my brother was not going to come out of that house alive.”
She says her brother made it clear, he planned to take his own life. She says at the time, he believed he had killed Deputy Gist. “My brother knew what was going on. He knew he was wrong, he admitted to being wrong, and he just didn’t want to go back to jail.”
The main reason Shields wanted to tell her story was to set the record straight about how law enforcement handled the shooting. “You know, a lot of people try to make the police to be the bad guys, and that if you shoot a cop, they are gonna try to kill you. They treated my brother like any other victim. They treated my family like families of victims.”
“The police were great with us. They were very supportive. Very helpful. I honestly believe they did everything they could to try to get my brother out alive and to be able to treat him.”
“This is not one of those cases where the police just decided to shoot someone. This is not that case. My brother was wrong, he knew he was wrong. And the police did their job. And they did a damn good job at it. They did their job. They tried to help him as much as they could.”
Deputy Kimber Gist continues to do well after surgery. She is still in stable condition.
