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COLUMBIA, S.C. — A judge in South Carolina set a $150,000 bond for a small-town police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a man who investigators said led her on a high-speed chase after running through a stop sign.
Hemingway police officer Cassandra Dollard was released from jail less than two hours after the bond hearing.
An arrest warrant says around 1:24 a.m. on February 6, Dollard tried to pull over Robert Junior Langley for running a stop sign in the town of Hemingway, which is in Williamsburg County. The warrant says it turned into a chase, with Langley disregarding traffic signals and driving over 100 miles an hour.
SLED agents say the pursuit continued onto Highway 261 in Georgetown County. About eight miles from where the pursuit started, Langley crashed his car in a ditch at the intersection of School House Road and Choppee Road.
Agents say Langley was trying to get out the passenger door when he was shot in the chest. Dollard told investigators she feared for her life and fired her gun once, hitting Langley in the chest.
According to an affidavit, Dollard did not see a weapon in Langley’s hands, and no firearm was recovered from the scene.
SLED said Dollard had no authority to arrest Langley outside of Williamsburg County.
Dollard was fired from her job with the State Transportation Police in 2014.
Court records obtained by The Associated Press show she waited six hours to report she fired her gun at dogs while jogging and repeatedly failed to call in traffic stops to dispatchers. The agency said Dollard had a “well-documented run of extraordinarily poor decision-making.”
A police officer in South Carolina was fired from two different law enforcement positions prior to a deadly shooting Sunday, for issues including “negligence” and “poor performance,” state records obtained by ABC News reveal.
Cassandra Dollard, whose career in South Carolina law enforcement spans nearly 30 years, was fired in 2002 from the Johnsonville Police Department, after eight years on the job, for “poor performance.” The current chief of police, whose stint with Johnsonville began shortly after Dollard’s ended, declined to comment when asked by ABC for more information about Dollard’s termination.
After a four-year stint with another police department, Dollard left for a job with State Transport Police, a branch of the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. She was fired in 2014, after eight years, for several offenses, including “negligence in the performance of duty,” “willful violation of rules” and “improper conduct.”
A representative from State Transport Police did not immediately respond to requests for more information about the termination.
Dollard was arrested after a shooting Sunday morning, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.
SLED officials said the Hemingway police officer was arrested in Berkeley County and charged with voluntary manslaughter,
Dollard was booked into the Georgetown County Detention Center on Wednesday, SLED spokesman Ryan Alphin said.
Earlier in the day, Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, who serves Georgetown and Horry counties, confirmed the officer was in custody shortly after a news conference held by the family of Robert Langley, the man killed in the shooting.
Alphin said the shooting happened after a chase that began in Hemingway ended in a crash in Georgetown County.
An arrest warrant said Langley drove his vehicle into the ditch during the case.
It said, “Langley, un-armed, attempted to exit the vehicle through the front passenger door.”
The warrant went on to say Dollard claimed she was in fear for her safety and due to that fear, discharged her department-issued firearm once, striking Langley in the chest.
