South Carolina Deputy Takes Down Suspect Despite Being Shot

A heroic South Carolina deputy is lucky to be alive today after being shot three times by a man in a car pulled over in what appeared to be a routine traffic stop. The armed and violent criminal did not survive the confrontation.

Chilling video footage replayed the entire incident.

It was Sunday, May 7, when 36-year-old Charleston County Deputy Evan Cubbage pulled over a vehicle near Ravenel around 3:45 p.m. The car had been weaving in and out of its lane.

The initial conversation seemed friendly enough as Cubbage, standing on the passenger side of the vehicle, informed the unidentified driver that she was stopped for drifting out of her lane.

It was after this, however, that Deputy Alexander Hodge approached and Cubbage asked 28-year-old James Rakeem Pierce to exit the car. Pierce exclaimed that “I’m not reaching for nothing” but then brandished a handgun, sending the two deputies scrambling for cover.

Cubbage was shot three times but still managed to fire into the vehicle from the driver’s side. He appeared to hit Pierce with at least one of his shots and the suspect continued to fire at the officers.

The injured Cubbage, however, was then able to neutralize the suspect with his weapon.

Sheriff Kristin Graziano called the video “difficult to watch.” She said she was angry at “the violence directed at those who lay their lives on the line daily to protect our citizens. She commended her deputies for “acting appropriately and professionally.”

Graziano revealed that Pierce was a convicted felon who illegally possessed a weapon when the car he was a passenger in was pulled over.

Cubbage can be heard on the audio recording saying he’s been struck by the gunfire at least twice, though it was discovered at the hospital that he’d been hit three times. He applied a tourniquet to his leg as he waited for the medics to arrive.

They confirmed that Pierce was dead at the scene. The injured deputy was treated and released from the hospital that night.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division noted that was the 11th officer-involved shooting in the state in 2023 and the first for the county. The incident occurred about 15 miles west of Charleston.