Sheriff: Internal probe clears deputies in fatal shooting

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina sheriff says an internal investigation has cleared deputies who shot and killed an armed man they were trying to arrest in February.

Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said in a YouTube video released on Sunday that all six deputies at the scene have been cleared in the death of 39-year-old William Clayton Blackwell.

Sheriff’s spokesman Ryan Flood says Blackwell was in a prone position, pointing a rifle at deputies when authorities fired back.

The State Law Enforcement Division is still conducting its own investigation.