Bruce McLaughlin Jr. is shown in an undated photo provided by the Pickens County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say McLaughlin, who escaped from a South Carolina jail Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018, was shot and killed by a woman after he kicked open the backdoor of her home. (Pickens County Sheriff’s Office via COLUMBIA, S.C.)
An inmate who had escaped minutes earlier from a county jail in South Carolina was shot and killed by a woman after he kicked in her back door, the local sheriff said.
The inmate was still in his orange jail jumpsuit and had grabbed a knife sharpening tool from the woman’s kitchen in Pickens as he headed toward her bedroom around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said.
“This was a big guy. If she hadn’t had a weapon there’s no telling what would have happened,” Clark said. “I gave her a big hug. I told her how proud I was of her.”