Lexington, SC (Paul Kirby) – Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher released the name of the victim who was killed by sheriff’s deputies Friday morning in a shootout on Seleta Circle off Windy Wood Road in the Boiling Springs area. According to Fisher, 28-year-old Chad Willis Huggins of Gaston was shot and killed after he menaced a woman with a gun and the fired shots at deputies. Law enforcement was summonsed to a scene where Huggins was holding a pistol to a woman’s head before he fled the scene in a car he took from her.
The incident Friday started at a truck stop just off I-20 shortly before 3:30 a.m. According to investigators, Huggins had a woman at gunpoint and eventually took her car and escaped. Deputies located the vehicle nearby and pursued Huggins down Seleta Circle. Sheriff Koon said deputies fired only after Huggins began shooting at them.
Sheriff Koon said Friday that he has asked SLED to investigate the incident. This is the second time in 14-days that deputies have been involved in incidents that left a suspect dead. Earlier in September, a suspect died after deputies were asked to check on him when he was acting strangely. Callers reported he was in the road near his home where children boarded the school bus. Deputies used non-lethal force when the man became non-compliant and resisted them. He collapsed during a struggle, was transported to LMC, and was pronounced dead about a week later. That incident is also being investigated by SLED.
