On Thursday, November 5, 2020, Deputies from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office extradited the 29 year old male that had been taken into custody in Johnson County, Tennessee following the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Dustin Lee Smith.
David Michael Watkins (29 YOA) was booked into the Pickens County Detention Center on the following charges:
Warrant:
2020A3910101349 – Murder
2020A3910101353 – Possession of Weapon During a Violent Crime
A 29 year old male has been taken into custody following the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Dustin Lee Smith. Mr. Smith was found deceased on the shoulder of Ponderosa Drive, Six Mile, early Sunday morning.
A team of detectives have worked around the clock since the deceased was first discovered the morning of Sunday, November 1, 2020.
The suspect was identified during the investigation which led detectives to Johnson County, Tennessee, where the suspect was taken into custody without incident.
This investigation is still on-going as Sheriff’s detectives are investigating additional leads and information to determine if there are other potential co-defendant(s) that may have played a role before and/or after Mr. Smith’s death.
Sheriff Rick Clark stated…..
“Please join with us as we pray for Mr. Smith’s family and friends as they attempt to understand and cope with this tragic and senseless loss of life. Our hearts go out to each and every one of them as we remain focused on the mission at hand; which is to bring the person or persons responsible for his death to justice. I would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the excellent law enforcement officers from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation who assisted us during this investigation. The success of this investigation would not have been possible without them”.
David Michael Watkins (29 YOA) taken into custody today in Johnson County, Tennessee, where he awaits extradition back to South Carolina. He will be booked on the following charge:
On Saturday, October 24, 2020, Agents with Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, Easley Police Department, and Clemson Police Department collected medications from the public at three locations within Pickens County. The agencies were participating in the DEA National Prescription Pill Take Back Day. The nationwide event was designed to remove unused prescription medications from public access, to help prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths. Often times, these medications are abused by family and friends of the person originally prescribed the medications. The program offers a safe way to dispose of unused pills. Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, Easley Police Department, and Clemson Police Department collect pills year round at their agency office, and actively participate in this program. Behavioral Health Services of Pickens in particular the Stepping it up Coalition, also assists with this national event. This year, all participants were able to collect three hundred ninety-five (395) pounds of medication. Thanks for everyone’s participation in reducing the prescription drug problem in our community.
It has come to our attention that this scam is very prevalent in the City of Easley and surrounding areas today! PLEASE DO NOT BE DECEIVED BY THIS SCAM!
SCAM ALERT – In the recent days, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office has received numerous calls from citizens regarding a scam where fraudsters have been impersonating deputies with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office to obtain pre-paid gift cards. Victims reported having received phone calls from telephone number (864) 397-7026 and that the subject on the other end of the telephone identified himself as a deputy with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office before informing the victim that they had an outstanding warrant for missing jury duty. According to those who have notified PCSO of the incident, the subject impersonating a deputy informed them that they could resolve the issue by making a payment via pre-paid gift cards (ie: iTunes gift cards, Greendot cards, prepaid Visa cards, etc.). This is a SCAM!
No representative of the Pickens County
Sheriff’s Office will EVER call any citizen and request that they
submit a payment via telephone, this is not a practice of the Pickens County
Sheriff’s Office and if you receive such a phone call it is an immediate sign
that the phone call is a scam being facilitated by a fraudster.
The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office DOES NOT
take payment in lieu of serving an arrest warrant. If a warrant has been
issued, there is only two ways to resolve warrant: (1) for the warrant to be
served or (2) for a judge to recall the warrant.
If a subject asks you to submit a payment via a
non-traditional method, such as an iTunes gift card or Greendot card, this is
generally a red flag you are dealing with a scam. Fraudsters typically
choose these unconventional payment methods method because they are more
difficult to track. Therefore, be weary of anyone who requests that you
submit a payment through using those methods.
Fraudsters will frequently keep you on the
telephone to prevent you from calling the appropriate authorities. If you
have concerns that the person you may be dealing with may be legitimate,
hang-up the telephone and look-up the phone number of the agency the subject
claimed they represented. DO NOT rely upon the number they
provide you. Instead, find the number for the agency yourself so to
ensure that you are calling the proper agency and not the telephone number of
the fraudster. Upon calling the agency, be sure to ask to speak
with a deputy about the phone call so that they can properly advise you and
look into the matter on your behalf.
The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office along with the Liberty
Police Department will co-host a press conference at 1:00 pm, this afternoon, April
14, 2020, at the Law Enforcement Center in Pickens to release some details of a
homicide investigation in Liberty.
Sheriff Rick Clark along with Police Chief Adam Gilstrap
will discuss this investigation and release the identity of one person charged
in connection with this investigation.
The press conference will be held on the second floor of the
Law Enforcement Center, 216 C. David Stone Road, Pickens, South Carolina 29671.
This week is Telecommunicators Appreciation Week. Emergency (911) dispatchers are the first people you talk to when you call with a crisis. Even though dispatchers can’t see what’s happening, they are the eyes and ears of emergency responders—our guiding angels who ensure that the right responders get to an emergency as fast as possible, and who keep responders safe as they help people in crisis.
A Tribute to Dispatchers
Someone once asked me if I thought that answering telephones for a living was a profession. I said, “Its more than profession, it’s a calling.” And so is dispatching.
I have found in my law enforcement career that dispatchers are the unsung heroes of Sheriff’s Office. They miss the excitement of riding in a patrol car with lights flashing and sirens wailing. They can only hear of the bright orange flames leaping from a burning building. They do not get to see the joy on the face of worried parents as they see their child begin breathing on its own, after it has been given CPR.
Dispatchers sit in darkened rooms looking at computer screens and talking to voices from faces they never see. It’s like reading a lot of books, but only half of each one. Dispatchers connect the anxious conversations of terrified victims, angry informants, suicidal citizens, and sometimes grouchy officers.
They are the calming influence of all of them—the quiet, competent voices in the night that provide the pillars for the bridges of sanity and safety. They are expected to gather information from highly agitated people who can’t remember where they live, what their name is, or what they just saw. And then, they are to calmly provide all that information to the officers, firefighters, or paramedics without error the first time and every time.
Dispatchers are expected to be able to do five things at once—and do them well. While questioning a frantic caller, they must type the information into a computer, tip off another dispatcher, put another caller on hold, and listen to an officer run a license plate .. To miss the plate numbers is to raise the officer’s ire; to miss the caller’s information may be to endanger the same officer’s life. But, the officer will never understand that.
Dispatchers have two constant companions, other dispatchers and stress. They depend on one, and try to ignore the other. They are chastened by upset callers, taken for granted by the public, and criticized by the officers. The rewards they get are inexpensive and infrequent, except for the satisfaction they feel at the end of a shift, having done what they were expected to do. They are people who were selected in a hiring process to do an impossible job. They are as different as snowflakes, but they have one thing in common. They care about people and they enjoy being the lifeline of society—that steady voice in a storm, the one who knows how to handle every emergency and does it with style and grace; and, uncompromised competence.
Dispatchers play many roles: therapist, doctor, lawyer, teacher, weatherman, guidance counselor, psychologist, priest, secretary, supervisor, mediator, and reporter. And few people must jump through the emotional hoops on the trip through the joy of one caller’s birthday party, to the fear of another caller’s burglary in progress, to the anger of a neighbor blocked in their drive, and back to the birthday caller all in a two-minute time frame. The emotional rollercoaster rolls to a stop after a 12 -hour shift, and they are expected to walk out to their car with steady feet and no queasiness in their stomach—because they are dispatchers.
If they hold it in, they are too closed. If they talk about it, they are a whiner. If it bothers them, it adds more stress. If it doesn’t, they question themselves, wondering why. Dispatchers are expected to have:
the compassion of Mother Theresa
the wisdom of Solomon
the interviewing skills of Oprah Winfrey
the gentleness of Florence Nightingale
the patience of Job the voice of Barbara Streisand
the knowledge of Einstein
the answers of Ann Landers
the humor of David Letterman
the investigative skills of Sgt. Joe Friday
the looks of Melanie Griffith or Don Johnson
the faith of Billy Graham
and the endurance of the Energizer Bunny
It is a unique and talented person who can do this job and do it well. And, it is fitting and proper that we take a few minutes or hours this week to honor them for the job that each of them does. That recognition is overdue and it is insufficient. But, it is sincere. It takes a special person with unique a unique skillset .We admire you, dispatcher, and we all thank you for the thankless job you do. You are heroes, and I am proud to work with you.
The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office has received several calls inquiring if their particular business is essential and if there would be a permit required to travel to those businesses? The following is a link to the South Carolina Commerce web page that provides a list of closings, ordered by Governor McMaster.
We
have no further direction other than what is listed and we will not speculate
on any interpretation of an essential business that is not listed there. We
would ask that you contact your employer and go by the direction that they
provide as to whether or not you are to report to work.
There
is no permit program in place and we currently have no knowledge of any program
that would require a person to provide a permit in order to travel to and from
a place of employment!
We certainly do not mind answering questions in our dispatch center when they involve pertinent needs of the public. Please keep in mind, however that these types of calls sometimes overwhelm our call center and could prohibit the dispatch of emergency calls.
We are actively
patrolling areas as normal. However, we would request that for all non-emergency
or non-in-progress calls, that we have a Deputy call and take those reports
over the phone whenever possible.
The front lobby
at the Sheriff’s Office will remain open for now, but strictly for limited
services.
Non-ferrous
(scrap metal) permits will not be issued at this time.
We have
restricted public access to our Records Unit. Anyone who needs to request
copies of incident reports should call one of the following numbers:
Thank you and we want to assure you
that we are still conducting business and we are here for you during this time
in our lives when we all are adjusting to a new way of staying safe.
Pickens County Sheriff’s Office Attempts
to Locate Missing Man
The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office is currently attempting
to locate a 28 year old man that was last seen leaving his grandmother’s residence
in the Easley area on February 13, 2020, at approximately 1:15 pm.
William Franklin “Willie” Craig is described
as a W/M, 6’0”, 240 lbs. with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a long sleeve
pull-over with aqua and rust colored stripes, blue jeans, and tan boots. He is possibly driving a black 2008 Chevrolet
Cobalt with the South Carolina license plate number EFZ 721. The vehicle also has a “M” sticker on the
passenger side rear fender.
Mr. Craig suffers from medical conditions and has not had
access to his medication according to family members.
The Sheriff’s Office asks anyone that may see Mr. Craig or
has information regarding his location to please contact the Pickens County
Sheriff’s Office at (864) 898-5500.
A photo of Mr. Craig is attached to this release along with
a stock photo of the type of vehicle he may be in.
