Small community shocked by shooting death of sheriff's deputy

SMOAKS — The little white house at 699 Sunflower Drive has been a repeat target for burglars over the years.

Friends and neighbors said Thursday that the home had been burglarized twice before

Colleton County sheriff's Deputy Dennis Compton was shot and killed in the front yard early Wednesday.

Compton was responding to a tripped burglar alarm.

Christine and Ben Strickland said their neighbor of 31 years, a widow who lives alone and often works at night, bought the alarm system in 2002 after someone stole her jewelry. They said the woman didn't report it to police, as she did a 1998 burglary, because she was worried that someone she knows was involved.

The tight-knit neighbors said it's strange that her house has been targeted three times in 10 years while none of the three other houses on that stretch of road in rural, northern Colleton County have been hit.

The burglaries were just about the worst crimes ever to hit the area until neighbor Bill Pinckney, who lives behind 699 Sunflower, was awakened by gunshots Wednesday morning.

"The first shot was dead-up at 3 oclock and it woke me up," he said. "And then there were three more shots directly behind that."

And then silence.

"I didn't hear no car leaving — nothing," he said.

Pinckney said the first shot sounded different from the last three. At first he thought it was farmers shooting deer invading their fields, but then he realized the shots came from close by.

He put on his clothes and walked to the road with a flashlight, but he didn't see or hear anything until he heard sirens coming from about two miles down the road. He went back inside his house and waited as dozens of officers converged on the scene.

The shooting set off a massive manhunt involving officials from four counties. Authorities took into custody three "people of interest" late Wednesday — two in Colleton County and one in Summerville — but are being tight-lipped about the case. As of Thursday night no one had been charged, Sheriff George Malone said.

Malone said they were still investigating whether Compton fired any shots.

The Stricklands said things might have happened a lot differently had they left their telephone on early that morning.

The Stricklands missed a 2:56 a.m. call from the alarm company notifying them that their neighbor's alarm had been tripped.

Had he received the call, Ben Strickland said, he probably would have arrived at the house either before or at the same time as the deputy.

"Selfishly, I'm so thankful he didn't go, but then you wonder what would have happened differently," Christine Strickland said.

The homeowner's son arrived about 20 minutes later and found the deputy on the ground. He used Compton's radio to call for help, Malone said.

The Stricklands said their neighbor is shaken up and has not been back out to her house.

"Never has there been something as serious as this here," Christine Strickland said. "This is just unheard of in this area."