27-year-old Clinton man charged in Prisma hospital shooting
Thursday, April 11, 2019 LCSO booking photo for Kevin Boyce Patterson, who was transferred to Johnson Detention Center Thursday evening.
This post was updated 9:42 Friday morning, April 12 with a current booking photo.
Laurens County, S.C. – A Clinton man, Kevin Boyce Patterson, 27, has been booked at the Johnson Detention Center and charged by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division officers with attempted murder, kidnapping and pointing and presenting a firearm after an altercation early Thursday morning at the Prisma Health Laurens County Hospital.
The announcement came just after 8 p.m. Thursday evening from SLED Spokesman Thom Berry, who spoke to The Advertiser and also sent a press release to explain the charges against the Clinton man.
Berry explained that SLED became involved in the case at the request of the Greenville Health Authority Police Department. Though unrelated, it’s the second hospital shooting in the state in under 24 hours, as Orangeburg Regional reported one on Wednesday.
According to the SLED affidavit, Patterson “did commit the crime of assault/attempted murder” by “shooting a firearm at the victim with the intent to kill” while at the GHS Laurens County Hospital.
Patterson shot and injured the Greenville Health Authority officer, who returned fire on Patterson.
The kidnapping charges stem from Patterson’s action of “dragging away his father …at gunpoint while at the GHS Laurens County Hospital. Kevin Patterson forcefully moved his father across the waiting area of the emergency department before releasing him near the door.”
The GHS Laurens County Memorial Hospital, recently renamed as Prisma Health Laurens County Memorial Hospital, has signs on the ED entrance doors that no concealed weapons are allowed within the hospital.
The incident occurred just before 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, April 11, in the Laurens County Memorial Emergency Department, after a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer and a Greenville Health Authority Police officer attempted to remove a firearm from Patterson.
Patterson was booked at the Laurens County Detention Center.
“We have had a number of agents who have worked this case and that work is continuing,” Berry said. “We are working with the solicitors office, and the case will be prosecuted by the Eighth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.”
See the previous story, “Hospital shooting by “armed visitor’ at Prisma Laurens,” for more details on the incident as it unfolded and the Clinton family impacted by the incident.
Prisma Health public relations staff also sent an updated press release, thanking the many law enforcement officers who assisted in the shooting incident. See the full text of the Prisma Health statement in another post.
