Family of Mauldin Man Killed by Officers Plans Lawsuit

The family of a Mauldin man shot to death by officers last month outside the county Law Enforcement Center plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Wesley Swilling, 31, was shot seven times during a late-night confrontation with a Greenville County deputy and Greenville police officer on Jan. 14. Swilling's father contends the officers, who shot at his son more than 20 times, were "trigger happy." Meantime, the Swilling's lawyer contends the officers also were unprepared to handle the situation and overreacted with excessive force, according to a report by WYFF.

Swilling, whom the officers felt was threatening them with a weapon, was armed with only a harmless glue gun modified to look like a handgun.

"With a .45 caliber gun -- if you shoot someone one time -- it was designed to take a person down," Kim Swilling, the victim's father, told WYFF. "It seems to me they're getting trigger-happy."

The deputy involved in the shooting has been cleared and returned to normal duty. The police officer remains on administrative duty. The State Law Enforcement Division, meanwhile, continues to investigate the shooting, which was captured on the LEC's surveillance video.

Officials with Greenville County Sheriff's Office and the Greenville Police Department said Swilling failed to comply when officers ordered him to put down the apparent weapon, which they believed to be a real gun. They also justified the number of shots fired because the video showed Swilling kept advancing toward them.

"We believe this was without provocation and certainly was not within the realm of reasonable," the family's lawyer, Tom Dunaway, told the station.

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