Man killed by Spartanburg County deputies during hostage situation ID’d
The Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office has identified a man shot and killed by Spartanburg County Sheriff’s deputies early Friday morning in Boiling Springs.
Somchan Dan Somsanith, 42, was pronounced dead on the scene at 4:35 a.m., per Jonathan Lawson, Chief Investigator with the coroner’s office, in an email Friday evening.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division responded to the scene by request of the sheriff’s office and is the primary investigative agency.
Lt. Kevin Bobo with the sheriff’s office said deputies responded to a “disturbance with weapons call” on 155 Coldstream Dr. at 3:20 a.m. that resulted in a hostage situation in a press release sent Friday afternoon.
In the release, Bobo said deputies fired at a man, later identified as Somsanith, who was using a gun to hold a juvenile hostage.
Bobo said the deputies involved were not injured.
According to the release, a juvenile initially called 911, stating their father had a rifle and a shotgun and was threatening to shoot someone in the house, as well as himself. An adult male in the house verified the juvenile’s account over the phone and claimed there were several other juveniles inside the residence, Bobo said.
After a perimeter was established around the residence, Bobo claimed attempts to call the suspect to surrender peacefully were unsuccessful, but the other adult male and all but one juvenile were able to escape by climbing out of a window.
“The suspect then started going in and out of the house while armed with a rifle and was also holding the remaining juvenile hostage,” the statement said. “The suspect would alternate between pointing the gun at deputies, at the hostage and himself. He never complied with numerous verbal commands to drop his weapon; so deputies fired their weapons in defense of the hostage and themselves.”
Bobo said the sheriff’s office notified SLED, which is now the lead investigative agency. SLED public information officer Renée Wunderlich confirmed earlier Friday morning that the agency was responding.
Zealina Jeter, who lives across the street from the residence where the shooting happened, said she woke up around 4 a.m. to gunshots. She said she dropped to the ground and told her children to do the same until she could find out what was happening.
She said she saw police officers running toward the house, a young child running down the driveway and a person being treated by paramedics.
Jeter said she did not observe any interactions between officers and other parties prior to waking up to the gunshots. She added that the area is usually calm.
“It is a quiet neighborhood. Almost too quiet at times,” Jeter said.
Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Spartanburg HeraldJournal and The Greenville News. He can be reached by email at cro-gland@shj.com.