Sheriff Asks SLED to Expand Investigation of Slapping Incident

It might not have been the slap heard round the world, but Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon has taken a lot of heat for striking Timothy Shawn McManus following his arrest after a long high-speed chase on Jan. 30.

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division had already been asked to investigate the use of force following the arrest and whether of Sheriff's Office personnel acted properly when firing shots to flatten the tires of the truck driven by McManus, according to CCSO Public Information Officer, Maj. James Brady.

Thursday, Cannon sent a letter to SLED Director Chief Mark Keel asking him to expand the investigation to encompass the entire pursuit of McManus. Brady said his office had not yet received a response from SLED on the request Thursday afternoon.

On Jan. 30, Cannon and several deputies allegedly chased McManus for more than 20 miles and at speeds exceeding 120 MPH before shooting out his tires and forcing him to stop. .

Two days later and placed in the back of one of the Sheriff's Office's vehicles.

Since the admission, and acknowledging the SLED investigation of the incident several area residents have called on Cannon to step down, some even creating an online petition calling for his resignation. However many others have rallied to his support creating their own petition saying he should stay.

In his Thursday letter to SLED Cannon notes:

Because I actually acted in the McManus pursuit, I do not believe that my agency has the capability of conducting an unbiased internal affairs investigation which would normally ensue following an inident such as this. As you are aware, ordinarily Deputies assigned to my Office of Professional Standards would conduct an administrative investigation into whether the actions of the Sheriff's Office personnel were within the policies of the agency. We would also conduct a critical incident review and a pursuit review. Those internal findings would ultimately come to me as the elected Sheriff to make decisions with respect to those findings. That I am personally involved places the deputies who would normally be involved in this process in an untenable position.