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Newberry County deputies are still trying to determine what led to a death the sheriff called a “brutal homicide” after a man was shot and then dragged behind a truck.
The coroner used fingerprints and tattoos to identify the victim as Anthony Lamont Hill, 30, of Winnsboro.
Sheriff Lee Foster said, “We were able to determine through the post mortem exam he had been shot a single time in the head. The dragging was post mortem. Regardless, it’s still a terrifically horrible thing, even though the individual was dead when he was dragged.”
Anthony Hill
Foster said Hill’s body was dragged 10.7 miles until the rope snapped.
He said, “Dragging a body for ten miles -- what would possess someone to do such a thing?”
A motorist found Hill's body in the road on Highway 176 near Highway 773 just before 5 a.m. Wednesday. Deputies said it was immediately apparent that the injuries were much more severe than those typical in a crash.
Foster said it as one of the top three worse crimes he's seen in his 30 years in law enforcement
Deputies and investigators said they followed a trail of evidence to a mobile home located on Orchard Park Drive in Newberry.
At the residence, the deputies said they saw evidence on a pickup truck parked in front of the home that linked the vehicle to the body..
Deputies said a man who was in the home ran into a backroom and refused to respond to officers.
Foster said deputies learned the man inside was possibly heavily armed, so members of the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office Critical Incident Response Team and the State Law Enforcement Division SWAT team responded to the scene.
For about three hours, negotiators tried to get the man to surrender.
Officers then fired tear gas into the residence and after a few moments, Gregory Ashton Collins, 19, of Orchard Park Trail in Newberry, came out of the home and surrendered.
While Collins did not have any weapons on him, Foster said Collins had an empty pistol holster on his side when he was arrested.
Foster said the FBI is helping with the investigation. Foster said they are looking at the homicide as a possible hate crime.
Foster said, “If you kill somebody, its hate. But it has to meet certain criteria to fall under a federal hate crime. We wanted to go ahead and get the FBI involved on the front end. We didn't want to develop information later that said this was a hate crime and then have them have to go back over it.”
Investigators said Collins and Hill may have been friends or acquaintances, and they are not sure yet of the motive for the killing.
Foster said, “Just because we know each other doesn’t mean I can’t commit a hate crime on you. That’s part of the investigation -- but we won’t rule out that it’s a hate crime because they knew each other. Socializing together -- that does not rule that out.”
Collins is charged with murder but additional charges are pending.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC.
Source: WYFF4
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