Her SC deputy son was murdered. Myra McCants spent the rest of her life helping cops
For the last 30 years of her life, Myra McCants spent her days doing all she could to try and talk to people about the dangers of a police officer’s job.
Because in September of 1992, her son, 23-year-old York County Sheriff’s Office deputy Brent McCants, was shot to death during a traffic stop on Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill.
Myra McCants, of Lancaster, died Friday at age 79, according to an obituary published Wednesday from Burgess Funeral Home of Lancaster.
But her fight for justice for her son, and others who are victims of violence, will always remain.
“I told my son that day to be careful in his job and how much I loved him,” Myra McCants told The Herald about the last time she saw her son alive in 1992.
After officers showed up to her home to say her son was dead in 1992, she recalled:
“It was like half of my heart was ripped right out of my chest.”
In her last interview with The Herald, in 2022 when one of her son’s convicted killers was denied parole, Myra McCants said her son died protecting others.
“He (Brent) was so proud to be a cop,” Myra McCants said.
The 1992 traffic stop
Brent McCants pulled over a car on Dave Lyle Boulevard, then was shot and killed.
Hours afterward, police caught two convicted felons from Charlotte hiding in woods near Interstate 77.
Both Dwayne Eric Forney and Mar-Reece Hughes were later convicted in the mid 1990s of murder and remain in South Carolina prisons.
Forney was sentenced to life.
When Forney sought parole in 2022, Myra McCants told the S.C. Parole Board that her son’s convicted killer should die in prison.
Hughes, the other man convicted of the murder, was sentenced to the death penalty, and remains on South Carolina’s death row.
Bond with police, prosecutors
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said often at events honoring deputies and officers that Myra McCants would always be a part of the sheriff’s office family.
“For 31 years, Ms. Myra was a symbol of strength, hope, and resilience as she waited patiently for justice in Brent’s death,” Tolson said Wednesday.
S.C. Rep. Tommy Pope, the former 16th Circuit Solicitor whose late father was the York County Sheriff decades ago, talked weekly with Myra McCants for 30 years. Pope and current Solicitor Kevin Brackett prosecuted Forney and Hughes in the 1990s and both stayed close with McCants for the rest of her life.
Myra McCants also remained dedicated during her life to the care of another son who was injured in a crash more than 30 years ago, Pope and Brackett said.
“Myra McCants was a woman of dignity and kindness who cared about every person she ever met,” Pope said after learning of her death. “She believed in justice for her son, but she also believed in love for others. She was a great lady who cared for us all.”
Brackett also spoke often with Myra McCants and said she remained a positive person who cared for others despite the tragedies of her life.
“No victim I have ever worked with endured more hardship and tragedy in their life than Myra McCants,” Brackett said. “She never lost faith, though. While she could be overcome by it all sometimes, she remained relentlessly cheerful overall. She came to us for help and ended up giving us more than she got. She was and is an inspiration, and I treasure my memories of her.”
Myra McCants after her deputy son died
Myra McCants and her dedication to other officers was part of the community and coverage in The Herald and other media in the region for the three decades afterward.
She urged people in uniform to always serve others, and urged those in uniform to treat all they met with dignity and respect and service.
She attended memorials for other officers and would drive to York and Rock Hill from Lancaster to give deputies and police gifts and hugs.
Each year in May, Myra McCants went to an annual fallen officers event in Rock Hill where families of the officers killed on duty were invited as honored guests. The York County Sheriff would always send patrol cars to escort Myra McCants to the event.
She never forgot where her son died.
She often drove from her home in Lancaster to plant flowers along Dave Lyle Boulevard near I-77 where her son died.
A memorial to Brent McCants was put up near the location over a decade ago near Manchester Village shopping center. Then with her urging and support and pushes from officials, the stretch of Dave Lyle Boulevard in 2017 was dedicated in Brent McCants’ name.
When York County deputy Mike Doty was shot and killed on duty in 2018, Myra McCants offered her support to Doty’s family and the sheriff’s office.
She went to sheriff functions and the funeral and hugged every deputy she could find in 2018.
“I told them I loved them and I always will,” she said in 2018.
A memorial service will be held for Myra McCants at a later date, the obituary said.
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 11:18 AM.
