Charges are expected Friday against two South Carolina law enforcement officers that were transporting two mental patients who drowned while locked in the back of a van during Hurricane Florence, according to a prosecutor’s statements to several media outlets.
Stephen Flood will be charged with two counts each of reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter, Solicitor Ed Clements told news outlets late Thursday. Joshua Bishop will be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, he said.
Flood and Bishop were fired from the Horry County Sheriff’s Office in October as part of an internal investigation. Authorities said the two deputies were driving 45-year-old Wendy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green through Marion County to a mental-health facility as part of a court order when their van was swept away by rising floodwaters caused by torrential rains brought to the state by Hurricane Florence.
