Law enforcement: Missing constable is a retired Dorchester County Sheriff's deputy

LINCOLNVILLE - Law enforcement officials said the constable who disappeared Monday night and is presumed kidnapped is 67-year-old Robert Lee Bailey, a retired Dorchester County Sheriff's deputy.

"We don't have any real idea what happened," Sheriff Al Cannon said today. "And we may never know."

Law enforcement also identified Walter Fayall, 24, as a "person of interest" in the disappearance and related shootings, although they have not yet said why they believe he is involved. Fayall is currently wanted on a federal warrant for a firearm violation.

It was about 10:30 p.m. when Sgt. Richie Hill, the sole paid police officer in this little town, heard the shots from his office. He knew Bailey, a volunteer Lincolnville police officer who is retired from his previous full-time job, had been on a traffic stop just down the road on West Smith Street, so he radioed the dispatcher to check on him, said Capt. Mike Benton of the Charleston County Sheriff's Office.

Police would later learn the traffic stop had nothing to do with the disappearance, Benton said. But the constable didn't answer the radio.

Shortly after the stop, however, 911 calls rang in to the Sheriff's Office from residents concerned about gunfire.

Sheriff's deputies and Summerville police searched the area, and a Summerville officer found a frightening scene on Greenwood Street off West Smith Street. The cap the officer wore to identify himself as a constable, along with two semi-automatic handguns, bullet casings and a lot of blood were scattered in the street and yard in front of a home, Benton said. Shell casings appear to have come from two guns, one of them Bailey's, Cannon said.

As word spread and local police agencies broadcast lookout information for the constable and his cruiser, a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper traveling on Interstate 26 spotted smoke on Farmington Road in the Sangaree area. He made his way around the winding frontage road that runs between I-26 and the neighborhood, and the flames led him to the Lincolnville police cruiser. It was parked behind Faith Assembly of God and torched near the building. A volunteer fire department extinguished the fire. Bailey was not found with the cruiser, Benton said.

A massive search is on today, and the focus is now in Harleyville.

"We ask the community to pray for him," Benton said . "He is a missing (police) family member, and we are not going to stop until we find him."

Constables are appointed to assist law enforcement agencies. They must complete a basic training course at a state technical college before the State Law Enforcement Division will recommend their approval by the governor.

Constables can carry firearms after completing a qualification course. They may intervene in "imminent and urgent circumstances."

The incident occurred less than two months after two Moncks Corner police officers were killed in the line of duty.

Cpl. Marcus Stiles and Pfc. Lonnie Wells were shot March 25 while responding to a domestic dispute call outside the town's limits. The shooter, Gary Douglas, later died from a gunshot wound while trying to outrun Berkeley County Sheriff's deputies in a stolen police cruiser.

Reach Nadine Parks at 937-5573 or nparks@postandcourier.com.

To provide information about the constable's disappearance, call the Charleston County Sheriff's Office at 202-1700 or Crime Stoppers at 554-1111.

Timeline of the events:

10:28 p.m. - The constable clears from a traffic stop on West Smith Street.

10:32 p.m. - Several citizens call 911 and report shots fired in the area of Greenwood Street.

11:01 p.m. - A Summerville police officer finds a constable cap, two handguns and a large amount of blood in the street and in a yard on Greenwood Street.

11:40 p.m. - A S.C. Highway Patrol trooper finds the constable's town police cruiser ablaze at Faith Assembly of God on Farmington Road in Sangaree.