Sheriff refuses to apologize for saying deputies had opportunity to kill Black men but didn't

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright faced backlash from residents Monday over comments he made following the arrest of two Black men who were initially accused of firing shots at deputies. 

Tensions escalated at the Spartanburg County Council meeting Monday night where several residents denounced Wright. At one point, Wright, standing in the back of council chambers, interrupted a Black resident as he spoke. And in the lobby outside chambers, deputies had to intervene between a Black man and a white Wright supporter as they argued to the point of cursing. 

In the end, many left the meeting angrier than when they arrived. When Wright approached the microphone and faced the crowd of supporters and detractors, he stood by his remarks that his deputies had every opportunity to shoot the two men, whose charges were later reduced.

He said some of his comments in a Sept. 14 Herald-Journal video were “taken out of context.” 

"I don't owe you an apology for doing my job," Wright told the crowd. "I am going to continue to do my job no matter how loud you get or what you say, I'm going to do the right thing. I'm going to do it for everybody equally."

Several residents defended the sheriff, including former city councilman Sterling Anderson.

“I’m not here to get into a debate about the law, I’m here to speak about the heart and mind of Chuck Wright,” Anderson said. “I’ve known him for 30 years plus, he’s a Christian man who is sworn to protect every one of us, whether white or Black. He and his men have an impossible job trying to keep everybody happy, especially in these times. Everybody is on edge.”

But most who spoke lambasted the sheriff. Courtney McLain said she started a petition requesting that he formally apologize for his remarks. Since noon, it’s gathered more than 230 signatures, she said.

“Refusing to correct or acknowledge his mistakes brings into question the morality of not only Sheriff Wright but the entire department,” she said. “It seems easier for our own sheriff to fight against the minorities within the community than to fight for us.”

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The controversy surrounding the sheriff stems from comments he made in a Herald-Journal video regarding a Sept. 13 incident. Akymzee Holbert, 22, and Tarus Mallory, 23, were arrested and accused of shooting at deputies. 

The next day, Sheriff Chuck Wright, defended how deputies handled the incident and said the two suspects were fortunate they were not hurt.

"I want the community to know, these were two young Black males that the liberals are trying to say we're after to try to kill all the time," Wright told the Herald-Journal. "We're not trying to kill anybody, we're not trying to hurt anybody. We had every opportunity to kill two young black men and we did not do it."

On Thursday, the attempted murder charges against the two suspects were dropped due to a lack of evidence that shots were fired toward the deputies. 

Calls mounted for Wright to apologize.

"Killing them (Holbert and Mallory) would have been murder," Michael Brown, a county council member and chairman of the local chapter of the NAACP, said last week, "So thankful restraint was shown by at least one of the officers so we have the guys (Holbert and Mallory) to tell their side of the story."

After the council meeting Monday, Brown reiterated his opinion that Wright should apologize. 

"I know he's in a tough position," Brown said. "But you have to know that you represent everyone in this county, not just a certain segment." 

Resident TyQuian English said the sheriff’s remarks divided the community. 

“You didn’t say he had the right to kill two citizens, he said he had the right to kill two Black males,” English said during the meet. “How am I supposed to feel about that? I’m not a liberal, I’m not a Republican either. I’m just a Black man trying to survive in America. And I don’t know if I can live with Chuck Wright.” 

Members of the new racial equity group SIREN (Spartanburg Initiative for Racial Equity Now) asked the council to apologize on Wright’s behalf, encouraged the sheriff and the council to participate in racial equity training, and requested that the county form a citizens' oversight committee for the Sheriff's Office.

“The sheriff continues to use divisive rhetoric and divide the community he was elected to protect and serve,” said resident Tamika Thompson, calling the sheriff “unprofessional and unethical."

“How can the sheriff be a part of the solution to the challenges that we face in this community if he is out there ...publicly minimizing and belittling the community every chance he gets?” she said.

The Spartanburg County Council didn't discuss any public comments before dismissing. Before they began, chairman Manning Lynch explained that the Sheriff is an elected constitutional officer who answers only to the voters, not the council. 

Sheriff Wright maintains that he's just doing his job — to uphold the law. 

"By constitutional law and by policy, we certainly did have a right to return fire because those deputies felt like they had been fired on. Thank God nobody got hurt. I have to give those two young men credit. When they stopped, they complied with the officers and nothing further was done."