MCCOLL, S.C. (WBTW) — A controversial Texas-based nonprofit promising to set up citizen patrols in McColl is now asking Gov. Henry McMaster’s office to step in amid the town’s continued turmoil.
The One in Five Foundation For Kids “is hereby requesting your office to launch a formal investigation and intervention into the increasingly daunting events, affecting public safety as unfolding in McColl, South Carolina,” founder and director Daniel Chapin said.
McMaster declined to comment last week when News13 asked him about the ongoing situation in McColl — which is currently without a police force and coping with the death of Mayor George Garner.
Chapin’s organization — launched in May 2022 after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas — announced Monday its plans to bring a STOPNOW volunteer group to McColl as a safety asset for students in the Marlboro County town of 2,000.
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Officials including Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon and state Sen. JD Chaplin both raised concerns about STOPNOW’s legality and authority. Chaplin said on Thursday he was seeking an opinion by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson about the group’s role.
“All this is hogwash. This is America. They can come here. But they have no authorization for police arrests or any authorization for anything police-related,” Lemon told News13. “It’s a sad day in America. I have been in law enforcement for 37 years. We have been at the schools for two weeks and have had no problems. Then the mayor dies, and all this craziness comes out. They can come here. They can walk our streets. But they have no authority to arrest anyone or any other authorized police work.”
McColl’s five-person police department all stepped down on Nov. 21. Garner was killed in a head-on crash in Darlington County on Nov. 26.
