SLED names Hemingway Police officer arrested in weekend shooting

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - The State Law Enforcement Division released the name of the Hemingway Police officer arrested in an officer-involved shooting Sunday morning.

SLED spokesman Ryan Alphin said officer Cassandra Dollard was arrested in Berkeley County and charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Dollard has been booked into the Georgetown County Detention Center Wednesday, Alphin said.

Earlier in the day, Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, who serves Georgetown and Horry Counties, confirmed the officer was in custody shortly after a news conference held by the family of Robert Langley, the man killed in the shooting.

The shooting happened early Sunday morning, according to the State Law Enforcement Division, which was called in to investigate.

The Hemingway Police Department has not released information on the incident.

SLED spokesman Ryan Alphin said the shooting happened after a chase that began in Hemingway ended in a crash in Georgetown County.

An incident report from the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office states deputies responded at approximately 1:35 a.m. to the area of Choppee Road and Schoolhouse Drive in the Pleasant Hill area. Deputies shut down the intersection to traffic after Langley was taken to the hospital and turned over that scene to SLED agents.

Training history

Dollard was working for her sixth department in her career when she was charged, and according to her training history she was terminated from two of those departments.

According to that training history from the state Criminal Justice Academy, Dollard had just started with the Hemingway Police Department in September of last year. She was previously with the St. Stephen Police Department for six years and left on her own accord.

But she was twice fired from other law enforcement jobs.

In April of 2002, Dollard was fired from her position with the Johnsonville Police Department for “poor performance.”

Then in September of 2014 she was fired from her position with the Department of Public Safety. In that personnel change in status report, then Director of Public Safety Leroy Smith says she violated multiple policies including willful violation of rules, improper conduct unbecoming of a state employee and negligence in the performance of duty.

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