Patrolman Leon s Gooding

Leon s Gooding

Patrolman Leon Gooding was shot and killed after he and his partner arrested a man on the John Island railroad tracks who had escaped from the South Carolina state mental hospital a month earlier.

They confiscated a rifle from the man but failed to locate a .22 caliber pistol. As the officers drove the man to jail he produced the pistol and shot both officers, killing Patrolman Gooding.

The 30-year-old suspect, declared insane was sent to the state penitentiary without a trial and remained there until 1973 when he was removed to a state hospital because he refused to allow doctors to amputate his leg that was infected with gangrene. His case was very complicated. He and his attorneys argued for years that he needed to be in a mental hospital but state officials argued he was too dangerous and prison was the best place for him.