Cops: First He Rescued Him, Then He Shot Him

Bizarre shooting unfolds on the water in South Carolina
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2022 9:38 AM CDT
Cops: First He Rescued Him, Then He Shot Him
   (Getty/Natalya Bosyak)

A strange shooting took place on a lake in South Carolina this week, one in which a man was rescued from the water—twice—before being killed by his rescuer. But police say it's a clear case of self-defense, and no charges are being filed, reports WYFF4. The shooting took place Tuesday on Lake Keowee, per the AP. Police say a man and a woman were on a pontoon boat when they came across another couple struggling in the water, having been thrown from their jet ski. The couple on the boat brought the other pair aboard, but police say the rescued man—identified as 29-year-old Nathan Drew Morgan—became belligerent and began assaulting the couple on the boat.

"Investigators have been told that the man may have wanted to get back to the jet ski," says a news release from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. Morgan's partner then pushed him back into the water in what police say was an attempt to defuse the situation. The couple on the pontoon boat pulled him back aboard for a second time, but police say he began assaulting them again. The man from the boat, "fearing for his and his wife's life," fatally shot Morgan in the chest, says the sheriff's office. The 10th Circuit Solicitor’s Office concluded that the shooting was justified under the state's stand-your-ground law, per Newsweek. (More self defense stories.)

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