Man shot by SC deputy in his home after bogus alarm call wins $650,000 settlement
“Get the ambulance here, man, I’m going to die.”
Richard “Dick” Tench was kneeling on a crumpled rug in the foyer of his two-story home in Simpsonville, South Carolina, grasping his bleeding abdomen while a sheriff’s deputy stood over him in the early morning hours on June 14, 2019. Just a few minutes before, Tench had been dozing off in front of the television wearing his CPAP machine. The next thing he knew, he’d been shot — by a deputy, no less.
“No you’re not,” the deputy can be heard saying in body camera footage. “You’re not going to die.”
Tench didn’t die that night. Now, nearly three years later, he’s getting a hefty payout from the agency he blames for the shooting: the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.
Tench and his wife, Cindy, reached a $650,000 settlement with the sheriff’s office on Feb. 28 after filing a federal lawsuit in June 2020 accusing the agency of using excessive force and negligence, Beattie Ashmore, an attorney representing the Tenchs, told McClatchy News.
“After three years, Dick and Cindy are very pleased that this case is over and they appreciate the efforts of the current administration of the Greenville County Sheriff’s office in getting this case settled,” Ashmore said on March 2.
Lawyers and a representative from the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on March 2.
In a nearly 11-minute video released on July 29, 2019, Captain Tim Brown with the Office of Professional Standards said Greenville County dispatch received a call at 11:49 p.m. from an alarm company.
A representative from the company reportedly said that a panic alarm had been activated at a residence on Eastcrest Drive in a suburban neighborhood about 14 miles outside of Greenville. Both the alarm company and the sheriff’s office could not make contact with the homeowners, Brown said, prompting a deputy to be dispatched.
That deputy was Kevin Azzara, winner of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office “Top Trigger” competition for “exceptional marksmanship” in 2017.
‘What’s wrong with you?’
According to the Tenchs’ lawsuit, Dick Tench was nearly asleep in the front room of his house when he thought he heard the doorbell ring. A light flashed in one of the windows a few seconds later, prompting Tench — a self-described “concealed weapons guy” — to grab his Smith & Wesson .38-caliber pistol and check for a possible intruder.
Azzara was standing outside with a flashlight in hand, but the two men’s accounts of what happened next differ.
According to his lawyer, Tench was walking toward the rear of his house with his back turned when a bright light flashed through a long, slim window on one side of his front door. He turned, keeping his gun at his side, and was suddenly fired upon, his lawyer said.
The sheriff’s office issued an initial statement saying Tench had opened his front door and pointed a gun at the deputy, prompting Azzara to fire first. They later retracted that statement, saying there had been some sort of miscommunication.
Brown, with the Office of Professional Standards, said in the sheriff’s office video that the homeowner had “turned and pointed his gun at (Azzara).”
“In an effort to defend himself against a perceived threat, the deputy fired his issued weapon as he retreated off the porch and subsequently struck the individual multiple times,” Brown said in the video.
Bodycam footage of the incident shows Azzara did believe Tench had been pointing a gun at him.
In the video, Azzara can be heard yelling at Tench after the shooting to “throw the gun out the door” and “let me see your hands.” A tense exchange followed as Tench — who had been shot in his chest and hip — crawled to the front door and unlocked it.
“Who are you!?” Tench called to the deputy in his yard.
“You pointed a gun at me!” Azzara replied.
“Who are you!?” Tench called again.
“The sheriff’s office!” the deputy said.
“What are you here for?” Tench asked.
“Because we got an alarm call!” Azzara responded.
“Oh my god call the cops, please!” Tench begged.
“I am the cops!” Azzara replied as he made his way toward the front porch.
The deputy eventually opened the front door to the foyer, where Tench kneeling with his hands up.
“What’s wrong with you, man?” Tench said to him as he clutched his abdomen.
Azzara began administering first aid to Tench after calling for an ambulance while Cindy Tench sat on the stairs behind her husband, the video showed. Tench can be heard repeatedly asking for an ambulance and questioning why Azzara shot him, to which the deputy responded, “You pointed a gun at me, man!”
“I can’t believe he did this to me, man,” Tench said at one point.
“OK, we’re not going to talk about this right now,” Azzara replied. “We’re going to focus on keeping you alive.”
Never any danger
The Tenchs’ lawyer said in court filings that Azzara never identified himself when he got to the Tenchs’ house, didn’t activate his blue lights or siren and parked his patrol car out of sight. It’s not immediately clear if Azzara still works for the sheriff’s office.
“Mr. Tench was not a suspect of any crime, nor had he committed any crime,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Tench was not under arrest at the time Azzara shot him. The mere possession of a firearm by a person is not enough to permit the use of deadly force.”
In the July 30 video, the sheriff’s office said Tench was taken to the hospital and recovered from his injuries.
His lawyer said he was shot at least twice — one bullet was removed from his chest and the other “will remain lodged in his hip for the rest of his life.” A third bullet reportedly grazed Tench’s back and was found in the stairwell.
Tench now walks with a limp, according to the lawsuit.
Captain Brown with the sheriff’s office said an investigation revealed that the initial panic alarm came from a “cell phone medical assist app” on one of the Tenchs’ cell phones. Court filings show it was 5Star Urgent Response, a medical alert device.
“However, there was no immediate emergency that was needed,” Brown said.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Man shot by SC deputy in his home after bogus alarm call wins $650,000 settlement."
