Group Releases Video Questioning Swilling's Death

For local and state authorities, the case of Wesley Kyle Swilling of Mauldin, killed by law officers in January, is closed. But police accountability groups continue to question the manner in which Swilling was gunned down and how his case has been handled.

In the past several weeks, the police watchdog group, Cop Block, has taken up the killing of Swilling, who was shot numerous times by a Greenville County Sheriff's deputy and Greenville Police officer outside the county Law Enforcement Center on Jan. 14.

Swilling, 31, was shot at 24 times. Seven of those shots, including a few to the back, hit him and eventually killed him. A March 17 post on Cop Block questions the manner of the shooting and the way its aftermath was handled by law enforcement. The group also is critical of the local media's reporting of the case.

Officers shot Swilling believing he was armed with a gun.

The group InnocentDown.org also lists Swilling as an innocent victim of police violence on its website.

In a March 31 video post on Cop Block, a member of the organization also questions the authorities' handling of the case, and takes Greenville Police spokesman Johnathan Bragg to task for the department's refusal to divulge the name of the police officer involved in the shooting, among other things, including the allegedly curious editing and quality of the surveillance tape of the incident.

Meantime, the sheriff's office, the police department, SLED, and 13th Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins have all cleared the officers involved in the shooting. The Greenville County Coroner's Office has since ruled that Swilling's death was "suicide" by cop, Greenville News reported.

Swilling's family has indicated they intend to sue over the killing, and it also has set up an online fund in Swilling's honor.

See Cop Block's posts on the Swilling case Here and Here.