Democratic members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation are asking the U.S. attorney general to investigate a South Carolina sheriff’s office weeks after a bus full of Shaw University students was stopped and searched on the way to Georgia.
A group of 18 students and two advisers were on their way to a conference in Atlanta Oct. 5 when Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies pulled over the group’s chartered bus. Shaw University President Paulette Dillard said in a statement that the stop was prompted by a “minor traffic violation” and that drug-sniffing dogs searched through riders’ luggage.
Deputies found nothing illegal and the students arrived home safely after attending the conference, Dillard said.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from the president of the historically Black university and concern from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, The News & Observer reported.
Now congressional Democrats Deborah Ross, David Price, Alma Adams, G.K. Butterfield and Kathy Manning are weighing in.
In the letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland dated Friday, the five U.S. House members said they were “deeply troubled by this unfounded search,” which left students “unnerved, confused and humiliated.”
Now they’re requesting both an independent review of the incident and a pattern-of-practice investigation into the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office. Such probes look for persistent misconduct by law enforcement agencies that could include racial discrimination, use of excessive force or violations of constitutional rights.
The letter points to other allegations of racial bias against the department, including a 2014 lawsuit from a Black former detention officer who said that deputies used racial slurs and that the office failed to provide training comparable to the training white deputies received. The Democrats also cited a 2020 statement regarding the handling of several arrests by Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright who said his deputies “had every opportunity to kill two Black men and we did not do it.”
“These incidents, coupled with the recent unfounded search of the Shaw students, indicate a need to further investigate the Sheriff’s Office,” the letter said. “We believe transparency and accountability are necessary for ensuring justice for the Shaw students directly involved in the incident, as well as the larger Shaw and Raleigh communities.”
Asked for comment Saturday, Lt. Kevin Bobo with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said the agency is planning a joint news conference Monday with the sheriff of nearby Cherokee County, South Carolina. He wrote that Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright “has spoken by phone with the president of the university 3 times this week and offered her an opportunity to come view the footage.”
That was supposed to happen at 4 p.m. Friday, the statement originally issued that afternoon said, “but the president just backed out of that meeting.”
A spokesperson with Shaw University has not yet responded to a request for comment from the N&O about the meeting.
