Sheriff defends raid, fatal shooting
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott moved Thursday to dispel what he said were “rumors” that a man killed during a shootout with deputies a day earlier did not know he was shooting at officers.

Despite that reassurance, the head of the Columbia Urban League on Thursday called for an independent citizens’ review panel to look into the incident.

Larry D. Bosket was shot in the head, shoulder and abdomen and died at the scene after a brief firefight in his Pine Valley home, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.

“Deputy sheriffs did not go in that house to kill him,” Lott said. “That was not our mission. The mission was to go into the house and seize the drugs.”

Bosket’s wife, April Bosket, and a 12-year-old child were inside the house when Bosket was shot. She said deputies rushed into the house without warning.

Columbia Urban League president J.T. McLawhorn said Thursday he, too, was concerned about the way deputies conducted the operation.

He called for an independent citizens’ review panel — separate from the Citizens Advisory Council that Lott maintains for the Sheriff’s Department — to examine the case.

“If someone breaks into your house,” McLawhorn said, “the natural reaction is to protect yourself.”

He questioned whether the deputies’ belief that Bosket had drugs in the home warranted “that kind of use of force.”