Sheriff Recounts Witnessing ‘Miracle’ After Deputy Was Shot in Head

A South Carolina sheriff said a “miracle” saved the life of a deputy who was shot in the head in the line of duty last week.

Oconee County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) Corporal Lucas Watts was critically wounded amid gunfire as he was making a traffic stop on South Highway 11 in Oconee County, Thursday afternoon.

Gregory Wayne Maxwell, 50, is facing charges after Greenville County investigators found that he shot Watts and engaged in a shootout with deputies afterward, including five counts of attempted murder, according to a statement from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO).

“Maxwell remains in custody at the hospital due to sustaining injuries from at least one gunshot wound from law enforcement,” GCSO said in a statement. “Following a potential discharge from the hospital Maxwell will be arraigned by an Oconee County Magistrate and formally charged.”

Newsweek reached out via email on Tuesday night for comment.

Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw, speaking at Westminster First Baptist Church on Sunday morning, provided an update on Watts and recounted what he had witnessed at the hospital on Thursday.

Crenshaw said he saw “a dead man come back to life,” according to a video of the sheriff’s roughly 10-minute remarks on Sunday shared on Facebook by the United Way of Oconee County.

“Just so you all understand the significance of his injuries, I’m not talking about a grazing wound to the head,” Crenshaw said. “I’m talking about a bullet to his brain so that you understand just how significant his injury was. I didn’t share that with my folks on the scene, it wasn’t the time.”

Newsweek reached out to OCSO via social media and email on Tuesday for comment.

Due to the location where the shooting occurred, Crenshaw said it would have taken an ambulance more than 30 minutes to get there, so deputies loaded Watts into the bed of a pickup truck and drove him to a nearby fire station. The deputy was too unstable to be transported via helicopter, so he was rushed via ambulance to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

While Crenshaw was at the shooting scene, he said he got a call that he was needed at the hospital, and when he arrived he said he was told that Watts’ “wound was not survivable.”

Watts’ wife, who recently gave birth to their baby, told the sheriff she needed to see her husband.

“They carried the wife in and she touches him and he starts moving,” Crenshaw told his church. “A tear rolls down his face.”

Watts was then rushed into a “very risky surgery” as Crenshaw said sheriffs from across the state were texting him saying they were praying.

“And Lucas makes it through,” he said. “His vitals are good. At that point, I didn’t know it, but social media had blown up, praying, praying, praying.”

On Friday, Watts continued to show improvement and started responding to verbal commands from nurses, Crenshaw said.

“Folks, I’m here to tell you from the time he got shot to the time his wife touched him, had to be two-and-half, three hours,” the sheriff said. “I saw a dead man come back to life… because of God, and because of intervening prayer, I really believe.”

The deputy is in critical but stable condition, Crenshaw said.

“I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I’m telling you, God performed a miracle Thursday night in Greenville, South Carolina,” Crenshaw said. “I’ve got no doubt in my mind.”

An update on Watts’ condition, shared on Monday by the family on the website CaringBridge, said he “continues to make slow progress.”

Watts joined OCSO in 2020 and was previously with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, where he served for more than two years. Watts currently works with the Pro-Active Community Enforcement team and the Marine Unit with Oconee County, according to a statement by OCSO.

Crenshaw set up a support fund for Watts and his family through Serve and Connect, a nonprofit in Columbia, South Carolina, focused on building sustainable police-community relationships. The fund has already raised more than $142,000 as of Tuesday night.

Watts and his wife welcomed their first child in September, the fund description states.