Shocking video shows moment cop is shot at point-blank range
Startling video footage captured by a South Carolina cop’s personal body camera shows the officer being shot three times at point-blank range — with him asking a dispatcher to “tell my family that I love them” in what he thought was his dying breath.
Officer Quincy Smith, of the Estill Police Department, managed to survive that fateful day last January after suffering two broken arm bones and a “life-threatening” neck injury, according to Hampton County officials.
His assailant, Malcolm Orr, 29, was found guilty of attempted murder and possession of a weapon and sentenced to 35 years Wednesday following a two-day trial.
“If but not for the grace of God and some very good doctors, this would not only have been a murder case, but a death penalty case,” explained 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, who prosecuted the case.
Smith had been responding to a suspicious persons call on New Year’s Day 2016 when the shooting happened at about 11 a.m., authorities said.
A clerk at a local store told the officer that a man wearing camouflage and a red bandanna had been trying to steal groceries from customers.
Upon his arrival, Smith spotted Orr walking away from the store and approached him in his vehicle.
The video — which was captured with a camera that Smith bought himself and placed on his eyeglasses — shows him exiting his squad car and politely asking Orr, who is on his cellphone, to stop.
“Come here, man. Come here for a second,” Smith says.
As he gets closer to Orr, Smith notices that he has his hand in his pocket as if he’s carrying a weapon.
“Take your hands out your pocket!” Smith yells. “If you don’t stop, I’m gonna tase you. I’m not playing with you!”
Orr takes a few more steps before finally revealing the weapon — a 9mm handgun — and opening fire.
“Shots fired!” Smith screams, while running back to his vehicle.
“I am hit. I am hit in my neck someplace,” he says. “Dispatch, please tell my family I love them.”
While cops initially said Smith was shot three times, he ultimately was fired upon “not once, not twice, not three times, or four, or five, or six, or seven, but eight times,” according to prosecutors.
Each of the spent bullet casings was placed on the railing of the jury box during Orr’s trial.
It took jurors less than 45 minutes before they came back with their guilty verdict.
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