Suspected Cop Killer Is 74, Boasted of His Gun Skills

A clearer picture is emerging from Wednesday's assault on police officers at a home in an upscale neighborhood in Florence, South Carolina. Seven officers were shot, one of them fatally, before police arrested 74-year-old Frederick Hopkins after a two-hour standoff. Police had gone to the home to serve a warrant, though not to Hopkins. Details and developments:

• The start: Police went to Hopkins' home about 4pm with a search warrant related to an unidentified 27-year-old man living in the home. The younger man, who is accused of sexual assault of a minor on a foster child in the residence, ended up being shot and wounded during the gunfire, reports WMBF.
• The shooting: Authorities say Hopkins set up with a high-powered rifle by a second-story window, a vantage point that gave him a clear shot at officers on the scene, reports the State. In fact, police had to use an armored vehicle to collect the wounded during the siege.

• The suspect: Hopkins has a quite a history. He received military disability from a wound suffered in the Vietnam War and went on to become a lawyer before being disbarred in 1984. (It's not clear why.) He was charged with disorderly conduct in 2014 and was found guilty of not paying a fine in 2017. The AP details his affinity for guns, including an online post on his 70th birthday in which he set up an M-14 rifle the same way he did in Vietnam. "I have been shooting competitively since 1984 and lovin' it," he wrote. "I just love the smell of gunpowder in the mornin's." Other posts show different types of rifles.
• The fatality: Officer Terrence Carraway, 52, had just received his pin for 30 years of service, and chief Allen Heidler called him "the bravest police officer" he's known.
• The wounded: Conditions of the others wounded in the assault were not immediately released. Hopkins himself, who surrendered after talking to a police negotiator, suffered some kind of head injury and has not spoken to investigators yet in the hospital, reports WIS-TV. He also may have suffered something akin to a heart attack during the shootout, reports NBC News. Memorials and funds have sprung up for the families of the officers, and the State has details here.
• A neighbor: A woman who lives nearby describes the Hopkins clan as a "family out of control." She says there were typically 10 children at the house, many of them foster children. “Whenever there was crime in the neighborhood, the police were knocking on their door. The older boys were always associated with crime."

(More South Carolina stories.)