A day after a law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty at a South Carolina airport a suspect was charged with multiple crimes, including murder, according to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
In addition to the murder of Airport Public Safety Officer Jackson Ryan Winkeler, James Edward Bell was charged Monday with discharging a firearm into a vehicle, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, arrest warrants show.
The 37-year-old Homestead, Florida man is locked up at the Florence County Detention Center, according to SLED.
Bell was already being held at the detention center on a charge of armed robbery with a deadly weapon, and no bond has been set on any of the counts, jail records show.
The shooting happened Sunday morning on Florence Regional Airport property, SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby told The State.
Bell shot Winkeler, 26, during a traffic stop, according to arrest warrants.
When other law enforcement officers arrived Bell had fled the scene, but they found Winkeler on the ground outside his patrol vehicle and his department-issued weapon was missing, arrest warrants show.
Another 9mm handgun that did not belong to the officer was found near his body, along with more than 30 spent shell casings, according to the warrants. That gun was out of ammunition, and a bullet hole was discovered near the driver’s side mirror of Winkeler’s patrol vehicle, warrants show.
Bell was tracked down near Highway 52, and was in possession of Winkeler’s weapon as well as an ammo magazine that matched the gun found near the shooting, according to arrest warrants.
Information on a motive for the shooting was not available, and there was no word if Bell was alone in the 2014 Chrysler 200 when Winkeler pulled over the vehicle.
The shooting remains under investigation by SLED.
Winkeler’s death was the first officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2020, after 45 incidents were reported in 2019, according to SLED.
A funeral service will be held for Winkeler at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Florence Center, according to his obituary posted by Cooper Undertaking Company Inc. Pyerian Baptist Church in Latta will hold a visitation from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, according to the funeral home.
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