USA TODAY: House of Representatives votes to repeal Affordable Care Act C1 TOMORROW, MAY 6TH Presented by: All Proceeds Benefit United Way of Sumter, Clarendon and Lee Counties DERBY PARTYTYY RUNR FOR 5:30 - 10:00 PMM THETTHH ROSES 5K RUN/WALK MAIN STREET REGISTRATIONEG : RACE START: La Piazza 88:08:00:0 a.m. 9:00 a.m. TICKET INCLUDES : GREAT FOOD, BEER & WINE, MUSIC & SILENT AUCTION FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017 | Serving South Carolina since October 15, 1894 75 cents WWW.DERBYDAYSUMTER.COM 803.773.7935 SUMTER SCHOOL DISTRICT NAACP opposes enlarging board BY BRUCE MILLS state House of Representatives — calls school district pushed the need for the [email protected] for the appointment of two at-large legislation to the forefront. members to the board. The board of In December, the fiscal year 2016 The Sumter County Branch of the trustees currently includes seven elect- audit report was released and revealed NAACP opposes a bill to add two seats ed positions representing different the district overspent by $6.2 million — in any fashion — to the Sumter areas of the school district and one last fiscal year and had an ending gen- School Board of Trustees, believing it honorary, non-voting position repre- eral fund balance on June 30, 2016, of would prove to be retrogressive and di- senting Shaw Air Force Base. Members $106,449 — a critically low level, ac- BY DENNIS BRUNSON / THE SUMTER ITEM minish the influence of black voters in of the local legislative delegation said cording to auditor Robin Poston. Since Former University of South Caro- the county, according to the branch’s previously they had considered intro- then, the board has hired a financial lina football star Marcus Latti- president. ducing the legislation for a long time, more keynotes the 2017 Mayor’s The bill — which is sitting in the but the recent financial crisis of the SEE BOARD, PAGE A4 Prayer Breakfast on Thursday at Sumter County Civic Center. Lattimore ‘The best aircraft in the world’ encourages Christians to ‘pray hard’ BY DENNIS BRUNSON [email protected] As he drew to the conclusion of his remarks at the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Marcus Lattimore had these words to the audience in atten- dance at Sumter County Civic Center: “Pray hard,” the former Uni- versity of South Carolina standout running back said. “Pray that when you come to him in prayer that you come fully authentic. Leave nothing on the table.” Lattimore then replied that you’ll get one of three answers from God. PHOTO PROVIDED BY U.S. AIR FORCE “It will be ‘Yes’ or ‘No, not The Raptor F-22 Aerial Demonstration Team stands in front of the Raptor. Raptor F-22 pilot, Maj. Dan Dickinson, center, is a Sumter High yet,’” Lattimore said. “And if School graduate and spoke at the school Thursday. To the left of Dickinson is Master Sgt. Delmont Benjamin, the team manager, and it isn’t either of those two it also a SHS graduate. will be “I have something bet- ter in mind.’ “ Lattimore can certainly at- Sumter man leads test to that. One of the most celebrated high school football F-22 Raptor Aerial players ever in South Caroli- na, Lattimore appeared to be Demonstration Team on the fast track to a career in the National Football League BY BRUCE MILLS after an outstanding freshman [email protected] season at U.S.C. However, it was two devastat- U.S. Air Force Maj. Dan ing knee injuries — one as a Dickinson, an F-22 Raptor sophomore, another as a junior fighter jet pilot, is all smiles — that basically brought an end this week. to his career as a football player An Air Force brat whose fa- even though he was drafted by ther was based at Shaw Air the San Francisco 49ers and Force Base, Dickinson is back spent two years with the organi- in the Midlands this week zation before retiring. and will perform as part of “I retired in peace because I the Raptor F-22 Aerial Dem- knew he had a greater purpose onstration Team on Saturday for me,” said Lattimore, who at the Air and Ground Expo played for Byrnes High School at McEntire Joint National in Duncan. “He’s not going to Guard Base. His parents, Dan put anything on you that you and Karla Dickinson, still live can’t handle. I found out this in Sumter, and on Thursday whole thing is not about me.” he had the special opportuni- Lattimore is still involved in ty to visit with students at BRUCE MILLS / THE SUMTER ITEM football, but now as the varsity Sumter High School junior Clayten Barnes, left, talks with Maj. Dan Dickinson on Thursday morning head coach at Heathwood Hall, SEE F-22, PAGE A4 in the school’s auditorium as another student looks on. a South Carolina Independent School Association school in Columbia. Along with that, he is sharing his testimony a cou- ple of times a month with dif- ferent groups and churches. Shoe with severed foot found on dock That testimony centers around the time Lattimore CHARLESTON (AP) — After a ing out of the top. tossed the shoe onto the dock and it’s was speaking at an elementary shoe with a human foot inside The foot, wearing a black sock, was impossible to know how long it was school near Duncan in the turned up on a dock in Charleston, inside the teal-colored, size-9 Adidas in the water. summer of 2011 prior to the South Carolina, investigators are sneaker. Between 2007 and 2008, five athletic start of his sophomore season trying to figure out whose it was and Charleston County Coroner Rae shoes containing human feet were at U.S.C. A girl in the third how it got there. Wooten says her investigators are found along the Strait of Georgia be- grade asked him how he bal- A police report says a woman told checking records of boating acci- tween Vancouver Island and the anced his schoolwork, football Charleston City Marina employees dents and missing people, but British Columbia mainland in Cana- and being a Christian. on Monday that the shoe had been haven’t linked any records with the da. Also in 2008, an athletic shoe con- sitting on the dock for nearly a week foot. taining a human foot was found on a SEE PRAYER, PAGE A4 and it appeared to have a bone stick- Wooten says she thinks someone Washington state beach. VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, B5 and B6 WEATHER, A10 INSIDE Ledray Sampson Maggie B. Middleton MUCH COOLER 3 SECTIONS, 26 PAGES the .com Ada Irene Dawson Corrie Lee R. Shaw Sunny, breezy and VOL. 122, NO. 145 Nathaniel W. Dozier Andrew Alton cooler today with a chance Clarendon Sun A5 Opinion A8 James Taylor Eura L. Green of rain; tonight, partly Classifieds B7 Television C4-C5 Alberta Miller Mary L. Livingston cloudy and chilly. Comics C6 USA Today C1 HIGH 67, LOW 49 A2 | FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Man faces 18 drug charges after investigation growing concerns of local heroin police department. oin abuse in other parts of the Sumter resident suspected use. During a department undercover state, the police department has of distribution of heroin Terrance Deangelo Haynes- operation, Organized Crime and been working to counter the rising worth, of 106 Angle St., was ar- Vice Control officers made contact trend and respond to potential FROM STAFF REPORTS rested without incident and with multiple sources and made overdoses within the community, charged with nine counts of dis- numerous drug purchases in the according to the release. Sumter Police Department ar- tribution of heroin and nine area of Sampson, Liberty and Last year, officers received train- HAYNES- rested a 35-year-old man on drug counts of distribution of drugs Purdy streets. ing to administer Naloxone, which WORTH charges Wednesday after launch- within a half mile of a school, ac- An investigation is continuing. can counteract the lethal effects of ing an investigation in response to cording to a news release from the With reports of widespread her- an opioid drug overdose. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kristopher Willms, 20th STATE BRIEFS Component Maintenance FROM WIRE REPORTS Squadron precision mea- surement equipment labo- Legal fee case dismissed ratory test measurement after ex-officer’s plea and diagnostic equipment craftsman, calibrates a mi- COLUMBIA — A dispute crometer at Shaw Air Force about legal fees for a white ex- Base recently. A microme- police officer charged in the ter gives 20th CMS PMEL shooting death of a black mo- airmen the ability to lin- torist in South Carolina was early measure equipment dismissed this week, on the accurately to one-one- same day as the former law- thousandth of an inch. man’s guilty plea to federal civil rights charges. AIRMAN 1ST CLASS CHRISTOPHER Michael Slager’s lawsuit MALDONADO / SPECIAL TO THE against the Southern States SUMTER ITEM Police Benevolent Association was dismissed Tuesday, ac- cording to federal court docu- ments. The two parties settled out of court earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. Slager hired an attorney through the police advocacy group after the April 2015 shooting death of Walter Scott. But that lawyer dropped our youth.” Slager days later when a by- Airman 1st Class Steven Suarez, 20th stander’s cellphone video of PMEL: Local CMS PMEL journeyman, takes pride in the shooting surfaced. knowing that his work supports agen- cies nationwide, to include preventing Highway Patrol issues illegal drugs from entering the U.S.