Bluffton man, SC deputy arrested after firing shots during road-rage incident, Georgia officials say
A 35-year-old Bluffton man and Hampton County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Wednesday in Georgia after he fired seven shots into another vehicle during a road-rage incident, according to a Clayton County Sheriff’s Office news release.
Johnnie Lee Bryant III faces charges of aggravated assault and reckless conduct in the shooting on I-75 South in the metro Atlanta area, the release said. No one was injured in the shooting, a spokesperson with the Clayton County Police Department, which made the arrest, said Thursday.
Bryant was booked into the Clayton County Jail around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to the jail log. His bond had not been set as of 3:15 p.m. Thursday.
“He is affiliated with the (Hampton County Sheriff’s Office) and we have no further comment at this time,” a spokesperson for Sheriff’s T.C. Smalls said when asked to confirm if Bryant was a deputy.
In 2017, Bryant sued the Town of Bluffton, two Bluffton Police Department officers and a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputy who arrested him in 2014 after he was alleged to have pointed his service gun at his neighbors and their dog, according to previous reporting from the Island Packet.
Those charges against Bryant -- two felony counts of pointing a firearm at a person -- were dropped in 2015.
Bryant’s lawsuit, originally filed in Beaufort County, was transferred to federal court, where it was dismissed Friday.
It had claimed Bryant suffered damages including embarrassment, humiliation, damage to reputation, loss of opportunity, emotional distress and other harm as a result of the incident.
