2 arrested after officer-involved shooting, chase in the Lowcountry

Two people have been arrested — and one of them was shot — in an hours-long Lowcountry chase Thursday morning.

Ricky Dewayne Johnson and Vanessa Jo Bapp are suspects in a series of pursuits around U.S. 17 A near the Cross community, starting around 2 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office.

Johnson was ultimately shot by U.S. Marshals deputies and is being treated under guard at a local hospital, Trident Medical Center, Sheriff Duane Lewis said in a news conference Thursday afternoon. No officers were injured.

Sheriff’s Office deputies started a traffic stop around 2 a.m. on Thursday after noticing an unspecified traffic violation by the vehicle Johnson and Bapp were in, the sheriff said. A car chase carried on until the pair ran out of road, and then they started to run.

Johnson allegedly fired shots at deputies from a handgun during both stages of that chase. None of the shots made contact.

Deputies were able to identify the suspects, whom the sheriff said were “known criminals in this county,” and found both had outstanding warrants. The vehicle they abandoned also had been reported stolen.

Bapp was found a few hours later, driving another stolen car, and was taken into custody.

Shortly after that, a tip came in to the Sheriff’s Office that Johnson was spotted walking in the area, the sheriff said. Johnson led two U.S. Marshals officers on a foot chase and allegedly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at them.

The sheriff said he did not know if Johnson fired any shots, but at least one of the Marshals did, and a bullet hit Johnson.

“If they (criminals) haven’t learned by now, if you pull a gun on one of my deputies, you’re going to get shot,” Sheriff Lewis said in the news conference. “They make that choice, we don’t make that choice for them.”

Lewis said both Johnson and Bapp will face “multiple charges” but did not immediately have a specific list of offenses.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is taking over the investigation.

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 5:54 PM with the headline "2 arrested after officer-involved shooting, chase in the Lowcountry."