COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two South Carolina law officers were charged Friday in the deaths of two women who drowned while locked in the back of a sheriff’s office van during Hurricane Florence.
Stephen Flood is charged with two counts each of reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter, according to online court records. Joshua Bishop faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Flood, 66, and Bishop, 29, were fired from the Horry County sheriff’s office in October as part of an internal investigation. Authorities said the deputies were driving 45-year-old Wendy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green through Marion County to a mental-health facility under a court order when their van was swept away.
According to records from the state Criminal Justice Academy, Flood made a “conscious decision” to drive around a barricade near the Little Pee Dee River, and Bishop didn’t try to stop him.