York County deputy justified in fatal shooting of kidnap suspect, prosecutor says
.jpg "The York County Sheriff’s Office in York, South Carolina.")
A York County deputy acted in justified self-defense when he killed a Rock Hill kidnapping suspect in April who charged officers with a baseball bat after an hourslong standoff with police, according to York County’s top prosecutor.
Richard Zonjic, 52, died April 21 after the shooting on Ellis Pond Drive. The State Law Enforcement Division investigated the shooting, then 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett reviewed the evidence.
No charges will be filed, Brackett told The Herald after sending SLED a letter Tuesday saying the shooting had “no criminal wrongdoing.”
Zonjic had been in the house for three hours surrounded by SWAT before the shooting, after he refused to let a woman leave in an Uber and forced her back into the house, Brackett wrote in the letter to SLED.
The Uber driver told deputies it appeared the man was armed, Brackett said.
York County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Daniel Barfield, a SWAT member, used “appropriate” force when he shot Zonjic after Zonjic swung the bat at Barfield and another deputy after leaving the house through the back door following SWAT’s breach of the front door, Brackett said.
“The officers were presented with an individual wielding a baseball bat who could possibly also have been armed with a firearm,” Brackett told SLED. “Under these circumstances they reasonably feared they were in danger of death or serious bodily injury.”
Brackett said in the letter that Zonjic’s death was “unfortunate,” but he was given “every opportunity to surrender peacefully” and leave the house by the front door with his hands empty.
“He chose instead to run out the back door, armed with a baseball bat, attempting to attack the deputies positioned there,” Brackett wrote in the letter.
Barfield has been a deputy for over a year after serving six years with another police agency.
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson asked SLED to investigate after the April shooting. Sheriff’s Office policy is for an outside agency to investigate such shootings by deputies.
Brackett won the Republican primary in June and was re-elected earlier this month to York County’s top prosecutor job. He told The Herald during the campaign that prosecutor reviews of police shootings should be released for public transparency and accountability.
The April fatal shooting happened after a different deputy shot and killed a Clover man near York armed with a rifle in March. Brackett found in September the March shooting was justified.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 9:31 AM.
