INSIDE: Sumter High freshman wins USA National Miss Southeast Junior Teen 2017 crown A2 SCIENCE
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Police: Reckless driver killed Apparent case of road rage resulted in own death of Sumter woman FROM STAFF REPORTS Authorities have determined the wreck that resulted in the death of a Sumter-area woman on Tuesday morning occurred during an apparent road-rage incident. About 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the South Carolina Highway Patrol responded to a report of a vehicle on its
Only time will tell for Gamecocks
side, engulfed in flames on Dubose Siding Road, according to a news release from Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The driver, later identified by Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker as Teona Yolanda Tyler, 24, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene. About that same time, law enforcement received a call about another
wreck on Dubose Siding Road. Thinking the incidents were separate, the highway patrol officer told the caller, and victim, that authorities would speak to her after finishing with the fatal wreck, states the release. The victim later identified Tyler as the other driver involved in the wreck. After highway patrol turned over
the crime scene investigation to the sheriff’s office, the victim told deputies that Tyler had threatened her before so she drove away from Tyler to avoid another confrontation. She said Tyler followed her, pulled up alongside her vehicle and slammed
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Simulating a downed aircraft
T
he Gamecocks enter the Valley of the Sun with bright eyes and a ton of motivation. They have arrived at the big dance, the Final Four, a chance at the national championship in front of a worldwide audience. Wait; is this the South Carolina Gamecocks men’s basketball team? You better believe it is and they are here to make a statement at the University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale, Arizona, for all to see and hear. USC FAN They came SCOTT H. here to slay the giant … DEARDUFF the tournament that is ... because their opponent on Saturday for the Final Four is no giant. The Gamecocks will be dancing with the tiny private Catholic university boasting 7,500 students, known around the world as a small school with a big heart and no championships. The Gonzaga Bulldogs have struggled to win the big one, any big one, when it counted. They have been to the tournament 18 years running, but they advanced to the Final Four this year for the first time. Everyone in America loves Gonzaga, and they are due a win. Enter the Gamecocks. Outside of Columbia and Sumter, few know much about them. The University of South Carolina, a public co-educational research university, with an enrollment that exceeds 33,000, more than four times the size of Gonzaga, is also new to the Final Four. Not only is USC new to the Final Four, the Gamecocks have only been to the tournament itself nine times and not since 1973. Many reading this article cannot remember 1973 and have no recollection of the team that competed back then. What everyone does know is the 2017 USC Gamecocks are in Arizona to change all that. They have come to make memories and create a new
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PHOTOS BY RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
Lt. Jason Lyons, of Sumter Fire Department, asks F-16 pilot 1st. Lt. Wade “Slash” Tolliver about his condition as Master Firefighter Kendall Painter, far right, observes his reaction to the questions about his condition. Lyons, who really is an F-16 pilot at Shaw, and the firefighters were part of a joint training exercise between local first responders and Shaw Air Force Base simulating a downed F-16 at Patriot Park on Thursday. His ejection seat and parachute are behind him.
Patriot Park becomes mock crash scene for Air Force F-16 BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Patriot Park was swarmed by emergency responders Thursday as Shaw Air Force Base and local emergency, medical and law enforcement agencies held a downed aircraft exercise simulating the crash of an Air Force F-16 with numerous injuries on the ground. Pieces of debris were scattered around the park and one location had a parachute hanging from a tree and an ejector seat nearby. The surviving pilot
was leaning against a tree nearby. Near the easternmost ball field, about two dozen airmen were tasked with playing the injured, dead and dying. The exercise was an effort to better prepare the base and community for an event involving a downed aircraft by exposing first responders to the practices and procedures necessary for such an event, according to an email from Shaw Public Affairs. The exercise
Sumter Fire Department first responder Lt. Jason Lyons evaluates the condition of Jordan Keller who had been struck by falling debris from an F-16 crash exercise at Patriot Park on Thursday.
SEE SIMULATING, PAGE A6
Man charged after he allegedly sets girlfriend on fire FROM STAFF REPORTS Sumter County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 44-year-old man on Wednesday and charged him with attempted murder and domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and set her on fire. According to a news release from the sheriff’s office, Roy Billy Hulon, 44, of 750 Pridgen Lane, pointed a firearm at his girlfriend and threatened to shoot her and a neighbor after an argument
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at his residence on Wednesday. Warrants state that a witness reported the victim sustained an injury to the mouth and Hulon held his hands over the vicHULON tim’s mouth as she screamed for help. Hulon then reportedly doused the victim with lighter fluid and lit it with a cigarette lighter. The victim sustained severe burns to
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her face, neck, torso and hands and was flown to Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia. She gave law enforcement a statement implicating Hulon. He was transported to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center, where he was denied bond during a hearing on Thursday. Hulon was charged with violent crimes from 2014 and 2016, including criminal domestic violence, pointing and presenting a firearm and first-degree assault and battery.
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