Robber
shot, killed at lake
By BOB HIGH
An armed robber from Bennettsville, S.C., was shot and instantly killed
by the store manager inside Hill’s Grocery at Lake Waccamaw Sunday
night. No other person was injured and the armed thief did not have an
opportunity to fire his pistol.
Lake Waccamaw Police Chief Scott Hyatt said Kinney Bethea, reported by
family members to be in his mid 30s, was the man who died from pistol
shots fired by Richard Wilson, manager of the grocery store, as Bethea
was dragging a female cashier to the store’s office area.
The Sunday shooting came six days after an armed robber was wounded by
a store clerk in Evergreen.
Hyatt reported the following sequence of events:
A man went into the grocery store just before 9:40 p.m. Sunday and went
down an aisle straight to where Wilson, the manager, was located.
The robber pointed his gun at Wilson and said, “You come with me!”
“Where?” Wilson asked.
“To the office,” the robber replied.
As they moved toward the office the robber motioned with his pistol to
a 17-year-old employee and told him, “Let’s go,” and
the youth and Wilson accompanied the gunman.
As the three reached the office area in the left front of the store, the
robber noticed a female cashier standing at her cash register and told
her to come to where he is. The cashier did not move. The only people
in the store were the robber and the three employees – Wilson, the
teen sweeping the floor and the cashier.
The robber left Wilson and the young clerk and walked to where the cashier
was, grabbed one of her arms with his right hand and dragged her to the
office area.
“When he came back, that’s when he was shot. There were at
least four rounds fired and he was hit in the head and chest. He dropped
to the floor on his face in front of the six-inch step that leads to the
office,” Hyatt reported.
The cashier was to the robber’s right and was not harmed. The young
clerk who had been sweeping the floor was huddled near the floor in a
corner of the office where the store safe is located.
As soon as the robber fell the cashier fled the store screaming, the chief
added.
Wilson alerted authorities by calling Columbus Central at 9-1-1. The robber
had no identification on him and he was taken to the hospital here under
the name “John Doe.”
Hyatt said 9-1-1 received a call about 11:30 p.m. from a cell phone in
South Carolina and the caller wanted to know if her brother had been shot.
Two more calls from South Carolina inquiring about a gunshot victim were
made to the hospital, one at 12:15 a.m. and the other at 2:30 a.m.
Three of the robber’s sisters from Bennettsville identified Bethea
in the hospital morgue today (Monday) at 5:15 a.m., Hyatt said.
Hyatt said it is not known if there was a getaway vehicle or who might
have been driving it for Bethea during the robbery, but he feels that’s
the only way news of the incident could have gotten to the robber’s
family so quickly.
Authorities report that Bethea fits the description of the armed man who
robbed the Tabor City IGA store on Halloween night --- also a Sunday.
The robber herded employees into the store’s cooler before getting
the manager to give him cash.
Hyatt said there has been no determination of whether any charges might
be filed against Wilson. “We’re still tying up some loose
ends,” the chief said.
Last updated: November 25. 2004 12:00AM
Dems' leader protects corruption
Columbus County taxpayers, as well as taxpayers statewide, are spending
a lot of money to investigate violations of the video-poker law.
That will continue so long as video poker remains legal. If it were banned,
the simple possession of a machine would be a crime. Take it away. Arrest
the owner.
Next case?
But the machines remain legal. Owners break the law only if they make
payouts greater than the law allows.
Proving that requires undercover work. It wastes time and money that sheriffs
and state officers could put to better use. It took more than a year for
Columbus County deputies to build cases against machines at six businesses.
South Carolina thought it could control these machines and discovered
otherwise. It finally banned them outright.
Some of the outlawed machines just moved across the state line, where
the huge illegal profits they offer has proved irresistible to the owners
of convenience stores, gas stations and other small businesses.
Video gambling can become addictive for some people. It can drain their
bank accounts and destroy their families. It seduces and corrupts those
who see it as a road to easy riches.
North Carolina should finally ban it. The state Senate has voted to do
that. The state House probably would, if the Democratic speaker would
let it.
But Jim Black won't. Purely by coincidence, of course, he has accepted
generous "campaign contributions" from the industry he so ardently
protects.
It's a gutter business. Jim Black's protection of it is gutter politics.
If they elect him their leader again without getting him to climb out
of that gutter, House Democrats will join him there.
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