With the Touch of a Finger New Fingerprint Scanning Device Will Help Coroner ID Bodies Faster
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East Clarendon moves on to girls’ 1A state championship SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 B1 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2018 $1.75 With the touch of a finger New fingerprint scanning device will help coroner ID bodies faster BY ADRIENNE SARVIS ID on him. fingerprint information. [email protected] The device, Baker and his team which is also needed assistance Working for the Sumter County used by law identifying three Coroner's Office is no easy task by the enforce- bodies in 2017. job description alone. And the job can ment agen- Not speaking be much more difficult if the deceased cies, will be specifically is without ID or unrecognizable. useful be- about the Rem- Though the coroner's office can't cause bert man, prevent that, staff will be able to iden- there are Baker said tify the deceased more quickly now many peo- there are some after receiving authorization to use a ple not na- people who new device that can identify a person tive to Sumter coming use aliases or within minutes by scanning his or her through the area, he said, such as do not carry ID fingerprints. personnel stationed at Shaw Air for various rea- If you have been fingerprinted for Force Base and people traveling sons. any reason — military, law enforce- Interstate 95. Baker learned "You can change ment, registering for a concealed about the device while at- your name all you weapons permit, applying to become a tending the coroner's acad- want, but your finger- foster parent, or an arrest — your emy in January 2017, and print is your finger- prints will show up in the system, he set out to purchase print," he said. Coroner Robbie Baker said. one as soon as he could. Without the fingerprint ADRIENNE SARVIS / THE SUMTER ITEM The MorphoIDent handheld finger- However, because the device, the coroner's office print recognition device — about the coroner's office is not a must use other methods to The MorphoIDent fingerprint recognition size of a cellphone — can positively law enforcement agency, identify a body, such as request- device is the size of a cellphone and can identify a person, living or deceased, Baker and his team did ing local law enforcement to identify people from anywhere in the after at least two of the person’s fin- not have the authority to check fingerprints, using a country. gers have been scanned. The accom- access the identification photo search through the DMV panying computer software will then database without ap- and reaching out to the commu- He said the DMV helped in identify- display the person's picture, name, proval from SLED or the nity through social media. ing a man who died of a gunshot date of birth, last known address and FBI. While those other methods get wound on Feb. 19. The man had legal- other information. The coroner's office the job done, they can also be ly changed his name, and the family "We got authorized on Thursday waited about six months time consuming and possibly was not aware of the name change, he and used it on Saturday," Deputy Cor- to use the device — val- detrimental to the death investi- said. oner Brian Rogers said. ued at about $1,400 — gation. Facebook is useful in identifying Rogers was the first staff member to after purchasing it while If law enforcement is called, people or notifying out-of-state rela- use the device while investigating a SLED and the FBI per- Rogers said, they could use ink tives, Rogers said, but only after all hit-and-run death of a 41-year-old man formed background to get fingerprints, which could other measures have been exhausted. in Rembert on Feb. 10. checks on coroner's of- get under the deceased's finger- However, Facebook and other social Baker said the man sustained such fice staff and created an nails and distort evidence, espe- media platforms have also proven to serious injuries that it was difficult to identification number for cially during cases of self de- identify him, and he did not have an the office to access the fense. SEE ID, PAGE A14 Historic structures to get revived BY ADRIENNE SARVIS [email protected] "Good riddance" is what Grady Lock- ADRIENNE SARVIS / THE SUMTER ITEM RENDERING PROVIDED lear, chairman of the Historic Preserva- The vacant, red brick building next to the Sumter County Administration Building, left, will be demolished and a building that will tion Design Review Committee, said provide public access to county agencies will be constructed in its place. A rendering of the proposed public-access building for Sum- after the group approved the demolition ter County offices is at right. of a building that has been an eyesore along East Canal Street for many years. Planning Department. tie in design elements of Sumter County constructed, the county administration On Thursday, the committee ap- If the proposed building is construct- Judicial Center, on the other side of building — constructed in the 1970s — proved two separate requests to demol- ed, the public would be able to access Harvin Street, and complement the look will receive some much-needed exterior ish the vacant, two-story brick building the necessary county agencies, and of the administration building to create updates, she said. next to the Sumter County Administra- county employees will have more secu- a cohesive public space, she said. Committee member Scott Bell re- tion Building on East Canal Street and rity inside the administration building, Right now, she said, there are a lot of cused himself from the consideration of construct in its place a three-story Helen Roodman, city-county senior buildings in the area with no connection both matters because he involved in the building that will provide public access planner, said. to each other. project. to the county offices housed next door. There is no historical significance to A crosswalk will also be added be- VACANT BUILDING TO BECOME Currently, the public has access to the the 1,300-square-foot brick building, nor tween the new building and the judicial STUDIO APARTMENTS entire administration building where are there any architectural designs that center as well as other streetscape ele- the auditor, treasurer and other county need to be preserved, according to staff ments that will tie the area together, The former Heritage Finance Corp. offices are located, according to a staff reports. Roodman said. report provided by Sumter City-County The exterior of the new building will And while the new building is being SEE HISTORIC, PAGE A14 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, B5 and B6 WEATHER, A16 INSIDE Henry E. Johnson Sr. Tracey D. Bedenbaugh Dewey C. Jowers WARM AND RAINY 4 SECTIONS, 34 PAGES the .com VOL. 123, NO. 92 Lila S. Munn Virgina B. Weeks Barbara F. Lemmon Another unseasonably warm Kyishawn C. Archie Donald N. McDowell Bobby G. Caples day and evening ahead, a little Panorama A5 Yesteryear C5 Arena H. Perry Jennie L. Cooper Sherricka L. Simon rain likely; tonight, cloudy with Education A7 Opinion A11 Annie L. McCants Jacqueline McFadden Nancy B. Wilson showers continuing and warm. C7 C6 Josh T. Frasier Mamie L. Wilson Ty’Ceiona S. York Classifieds Outdoors HIGH 84, LOW 63 C4 C1 Thomas P. Strange Ellen Dyson Reflections USA Today 62 Years Of Mortgage Lending Ready To Work For You. Sumter: 803.469.0156 Manning: 803.433.4451 bankofclarendon.com ."//*/(t46.5&3t4"/5&&t46..&350/t8:#00 A2 | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2018 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Inmate who shot deputy killed in Lee prison Bishopville, according to flict harm on an employee, disrespect, other inmate. Was serving 45 years a social media post from refusing to obey orders, abuse of privi- The prison is at the center of an out- the South Carolina De- leges and possessing or attempting to cry from national prosecutors, prison for attempted murder partment of Corrections possess a cellphone. directors and others who want the and The Associated Press. Brown earned seven work credits Federal Communications Commission Brown had been in between September 2012 and Septem- to find a way to prevent cellphones BY KAYLA ROBINS prison for attempted ber 2016, including wardkeeper, food BROWN from being used by inmates by jam- [email protected] murder and other offens- service aide, general worker, wash ming their signals, making them use- es, including breaking rack attendant and horticulturist, less. An inmate who was serving 45 years into a vehicle and resisting arrest which he was still doing. Sumter resident Capt. Robert John- for shooting a sheriff's deputy in the since 2012 for shooting a Spartanburg Information about the inmate who son was a corrections officer at the face was killed in a Lee County prison County deputy in 2011. He was expect- killed Brown was not released. prison in Bishopville when an inmate during a fight with another inmate on ed to be released in 2048 and was eligi- Lee Correctional Institution is a orchestrated his assassination attempt Thursday, state prison officials said. ble for parole in 2043, according to Level 3 maximum security prison for using an illegal phone. Johnson, who Robert Odell Brown, 33, was identi- DOC inmate records. males often convicted of violent was tasked with overseeing efforts to fied as the man who was killed during He had 10 disciplinaries on his in- crimes that opened in 1993. keep cellphones and other contraband an "inmate on inmate" altercation at mate record between January 2013 In November 2017, a 51-year-old out of Lee Correctional Institution, Lee County Correctional Institution in and March 2017 for threatening to in- inmate was stabbed to death by an- was shot six times in his home.