The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County

Update: Winnsboro man kills self after SLED arrives

WINNSBORO – As the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Department assisted the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) with serving fraud warrants on a Fairfield County man, deputies say the man put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

John Wayne McCord, 64, who lived near the intersection of Highway 321 and Broom Mill Road in Fairfield County, died from a self-inflicted gunshot at his home shortly after 1 p.m., Saturday, March 22, Fairfield County officials report.

As SLED officers arrived at two homes behind a brick wall in the Candlewood section of Fairfield County, they stated that they saw a man fitting McCord’s description back a white Ford pickup truck from one of the houses to the other, then go inside.

“As we pulled into the yard and exited our vehicles, a female came out of the house, stating that, ‘John is inside,’” a Sheriff’s investigator reported.

When a SLED agent called for the man to come outside, the report states, the man walked down a hallway in the house to another room, slamming the door shut. Officers report they broke through the door and found McCord sitting on a sofa with a shotgun under his chin.

A short time after a SLED agent reportedly tried to convince McCord that the warrants “weren’t that bad,” McCord pulled the trigger, shooting himself in the head, the Sheriff’s report stated.

After EMS arrived, law enforcement officials walked to the other house and spoke with McCord’s wife and notified the coroner.


Fairfield County man dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound

WINNSBORO – Shortly after 1 p.m. today, a black male reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot at a home in the Candlewood area of the county. The incident occurred near the intersection of  Hwy 321 and Broom Hill Road when SLED investigators came to the man’s home to question him, according to Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery whose office is assisting SLED in the investigation. The man died at the scene.

More information will be posted when it is available.

03/22/2019 at 8:06 pm