'Had to shoot': Sheriff explains why deputy fatally shot man, 55, during disturbance call (2024)

GREENVILLE — One man was fatally shot by a deputy after a disturbance in a West Greenville neighborhood.

The man, 55-year-old Ronald Dean Beheler, was shot by a Greenville County sheriff’s deputy June 15 and died outside his home in West Greenville.

A 911 call came in around 7:40 p.m. reporting an argument and gunshots fired outside Beheler’s home on Arch Street in Greenville, near White Horse Road. When deputies arrived, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said that deputies found Beheler in front of his home allegedly firing into it with a rifle.

At some point, Lewis said in a video posted on Facebook after the shooting, Beheler turned toward deputies with the rifle and one deputy shot him.

“(Deputies) obviously challenged him to drop the weapon, drop the weapon and do those things but subsequently had to shoot the suspect,” Lewis said.

No deputies were injured during the shooting, according to a sheriff’s office news release. The name of the deputy who fired was not immediately available June 16.

“Deputies knew arriving on scene that there was a possibility of somebody being armed,” Lewis said.

This is the fourth deputy-involved shooting for the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office this year, one of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies that has consistently led South Carolina in the number of officer-involved shootings in recent years. Three of the shootings this year have been fatal.

Last year, the sheriff’s office had three deputy-involved shootings, two of which were fatal, according to a Post and Courier database of law enforcement shootings.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the shooting.