Witness: Armed man goaded deputiesShooting victim expected to recover fully, family says By Nadine Parks (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Knapp Past storyArmed man shot by deputies, published 09/05/08 SUMMERVILLE — Horace Knapp stood on the wooden front porch of his mobile home Thursday night with the barrel of a rifle pointed at two Berkeley County deputies, authorities said. His uncle, Charles Judy, watched from next door. He said Knapp had been drinking beer and squabbling with his live-in girlfriend for much of the day, but she'd had enough. Now she was there with the deputies, who were escorting her to retrieve her belongings and leave. The deputies drew their handguns and trained them on the angry man on the porch, Judy said. They reported commanding Knapp several times to drop his weapon, but he only yelled back obscenities. His friends and family in the yard begged him to calm down, but he wouldn't listen. "Shoot me! Shoot me!" he yelled to the deputies, Judy said. Shots rang out. Knapp fell to the porch, sat up, mumbled something and then collapsed, Judy said. The Sheriff's Office didn't release an incident report, but a press release about the shooting matched Judy's account. Knapp, 42, a road construction worker, was shot in the arm and in the colon, and on Friday he was recovering after surgery at Medical University Hospital, the family said. They said he is expected to survive his wounds and have a full recovery. Investigators marked seven bullet holes that went into the two-bedroom, brown-and-tan mobile home on Christy Lane. On the porch Friday were the remnants of the medical efforts that took place there: blood, a discarded oxygen mask, a rubber glove turned inside out and the wrapping of an abdominal bandage. Knapp's cousin, Horace Judy, said he was shocked by the apparent actions of his normally mild-manner cousin. "He's not that type of person. It's out of character for him," he said. "He'd been drinking, but he wasn't sloppy drunk." He said Knapp's girlfriend moved in with him about a year ago, and the couple got along well until Thursday, when the bickering began early in the day. The argument had to do with custody of the girlfriend's son, who was staying with his father. As the day progressed the arguing escalated, and at one point Horace Judy stepped in. "I had to get between them. It was becoming a confrontation," Horace Judy said. "I was trying to be the mediator." About 8 p.m. Horace Judy left to pick up a friend from work. On his way out he found Knapp's girlfriend at the head of Christy Lane, a winding dirt road off U.S. Highway 176. She was waiting on deputies to escort her back to the mobile home, he said. "She just wanted to get some of her things," he said. Horace Judy returned home about 30 minutes later to a chaotic scene. "When I got back, there were wall-to-wall cops everywhere," he said. The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the shooting and the deputies are on paid administrative leave, standard steps in an officer-involved shooting. A SLED criminal records check shows that Knapp has past convictions stemming from arrests for driving under suspension in 1985, driving under the influence in 1986, another DUI in 1987 and malicious injury to property in 1991. Noah Haglund contributed to this report. Reach Nadine Parks at 937-5573 or nparks@postandcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 27 comment(s)
Posted by jammer on September 6, 2008 at 6:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
7 shots and only 2 in the knapp??
come on guys, my kids can shoot better.. get to the range more often before you hurt an innocent bystander
Posted by jammer on September 6, 2008 at 6:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
oh yea, and bout the drunk... how many dui's dus's and probably still out there driving, our great justice system that's designed to protect the people... the wrong people
Posted by southerngirl45 on September 6, 2008 at 7:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
jammer~I was going to say the same thing!How many DUI's does it take to get these criminals off the streets?(yes criminals)The judicial system clearly is failing.Every time an innocent person is killed by a drunk driver,it's usually not the first offence.WHY in the hell are they still driving? YOU GOT IT -A SCREWED UP SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!Now back to the story,the thing that scares me the most about this story is WHY were remnants of medical supplies with blood on them left behind? What if a child got hold of that glove and decided to play with it And let's just say Mr.Nutcase had aids or something.?That needs to be looked into(just my oppinion)SEVEN bullet holes in the mobile home but only 2 hit the suspect Uhmmmmmmmmm.Could have been a disaster if anyone had been in the home!!!Does anyone know who fired the first shot? I know the suspect yelled for deputies to shoot him,but if he had said "go stick your head in a toilet would they have?"Don't get me wrong-I respect officers of the law and I know their lives are put on the line everyday,but something tells me the actions here were a little hasty.Maybe that's why the sherrif's dept.didn't release a report to the press.All in all I'm glad everyone is O.K.Too many people are dying needlessly these days.
P.S.~Hope everyone surrived the BIG storm,the media had us worked up over.That's getting a little sloppy too in my oppinion.With that said,hope everyone has a great weekend.
Posted by ricktib on September 6, 2008 at 7:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't know guys, I'm a pretty good shot, but I've never tried it with an angry drunk pointing a gun at me.
Posted by southerngirl45 on September 6, 2008 at 8:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh.I just wanted to make one other comment,about the picture.Why is his face so beat up if he was shot in the arm and colan(ouch,that's gonna hurt.)Was there any other struggle? also if he was so drunk(and let's face it he looks like a decent person with a problem)why didn't his girlfriend just leave and let him "cool off" and then go back and get her belongings? I say after all this and most likely a lot of medical bills at our expence,she will be right back there before the weekend is over.O.K. I'm done.
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
He got into it with Marsellus Wallace
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 8:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Come now John Doe.. drinking only leads to fighting with your girlfriend all day...sloppy drunk will get you shot in the colon for doing so...see the difference???? LOL
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 9:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
He was told in the fifth his ass goes down....
Posted by commonsence on September 6, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Pull a weapon on LE, prepare for a hot lead injection.
Posted by moonpie on September 6, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WOW, rednecks,beer and live in girl friends!
Posted by RTC on September 6, 2008 at 10:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What did he try to stop with his face....a two x four?
Posted by lillycollette on September 6, 2008 at 12:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The alleged basis for the dispute between these two seems peculiar to me.
Why would Knapp even concern himself with the issue of the custody of this woman’s son unless he saw something wrong going on there? Was it -- wrong enough -- that he would prefer being shot?
I can’t really tell from the information in this story.
Posted by OldSalt on September 6, 2008 at 1:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This man's last conviction was 17 years ago. I think everyone overreacted - which is probably what the girlfriend wanted. He probably wouldn't let her son live with them and she, instead of leaving and letting him sleep it off, kept at him and then took off for the cops - creating the little drama she wanted to create.
The cops, of course, needed a little drama themselves, with all those weapons and all that training and nobody to shoot at. The article only says, "shots rang out," so we don't even know if he ever discharged his weapon. He wasn't on a shooting or killing rampage - he was just some poor sap who got stupid drunk.
Meanwhile, she's back trolling for a new baby-daddy at the local "establishments", the cops are making prepartions for the forthcoming awards ceremony citing their collective bravery in the face of one ****-faced redneck waving a gun on an open deck, (do they give a medal for killing a mobile home?), and he's laid up in the hospital wondering how high his medical bill is going to be and humming that old country song, "I don't know where my baby is, but that must be where my money went."
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 2:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How can you even blame any of this on the Cops. You also must be stupid drunk. Maybe she did every thing you say but you cannot fault the cops for reacting to a man with a gun... this sound very similar to that story were the guy was out in his yard with a gun and refused to drop it so they dropped him.....
Posted by jammanofdi on September 6, 2008 at 2:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pro - That is from Pulp Fiction - close though. Shot in the colon, huh?
Posted by ChrisPia on September 6, 2008 at 2:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Once again"Police,Drop The Gun"........He Didn't. So What Do You Expect the Officer to Do Wait For Him to start shooting.....It's a Simple Process Drop the Gun and You won't Get shot... Thank God All the officers are Ok and Going home to their families...Great Job.Thank you,All!
Posted by willie08 on September 6, 2008 at 2:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
what happened to his face? couldn't they have wiped the blood off before taking the picture?
Also, I'm sure the cops didn't want to kill him, and that's why they missed. They were probably trying to scare him.
It's a good thing he wasn't killed. Stupid drunk.
Oh, and off the subject, I hear the cops are arresting anyone who is on the streets at 2 in the morning and piling them up in vans like sardines.
Watch out! They almost tried to arrest me when I told them I was waiting on a bike taxi to take me home. They told me there weren't any, so I just flagged one down off the street. Stupid cops.
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 3:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
LOL RW....he probably hangs out in front of convinence stores begging for change. Everyone takes a bike taxi home at 2 in the morning.
Posted by walleyedwoman1215 on September 6, 2008 at 4:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Re: His face... maybe he fell during the cuff & stuff, or slipped in the sally port, or flung a fit in booking ;-) When, exactly, was this mug shot taken? Before surgery? Backstage at Jerry Springer? Last week when he refused to give his gal his paycheck?
So many questions.
This is what you call a righteous shooting. NEVER get stupid with a weapon when the po-leece show up!
Posted by jeff61 on September 6, 2008 at 5:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Buddy you're a young man hard man
Shoutin' in the street gonna take on the world some day
You got blood on your face
You big disgrace
Wavin' your banner all over the place
Posted by coolfreaknbeans on September 6, 2008 at 8:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We will,we will....shoot you.
Posted by meow on September 6, 2008 at 11:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The first sentence says it all "Horace Knapp stood on the wooden front porch of his mobile home...."
Posted by Dodad on September 7, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The picture is probley an old one from a past DUI arrest where he went through the wimdshield.
Posted by jeff61 on September 7, 2008 at 10:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I would have to agree,, the look on his face is not of one who was just shot in the colon
Posted by jackson707 on September 8, 2008 at 10:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sounds like white trash. They should had a better shot and killed him. Now its going to cost the system alot of money in court and medical. I bet he didn't have health insurance to cover his medical cost. The next story we will be reading is him sueing the police dept. for doing there job. If she goes back home with him she needs to be charged. Or better yet have to pay for his medical bills and the court fees.
Posted by CaptPete on September 8, 2008 at 4:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We want to see the video and audio to make sure this man's rights were not violated and he was given due process.
Posted by Chili on September 9, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
To those who comment on the deputies shooting skills: Have you ever had to shoot someone under stress so severe you only had gross motor skills to use? It's a lot easier to get proper sight alignment on paper targets or tin cans that don't shoot back.