Two brothers were ordered held without bond, accused of killing two lawmen along a busy freeway hours after holding up a loan company in South Carolina and fleeing in a stolen car.
The brothers, ages 17 and 19, were captured after a 20-mile chase Tuesday that ended in a gunfight. They were charged with first-degree murder.The lawmen were shot several times at close range by an assault rifle, Cumberland County Sheriff Earl Butler said.
"It's a sad day that we're living in a society that's so violent that an officer can just do a routine job, a routine stop that he shouldn't feel threatened doing and then winds up killed," he said.
State Trooper Ed Lowry, 47, and sheriff's Deputy David Hathcock, 57, were killed. An AK-47 assault-style rifle believed to be used in the shootings was found at the scene, as were weapons believed to have belonged to the lawmen.
The suspects' car, a 1998 Toyota Camry, was stolen earlier Tuesday after an armed robbery at a small loan company in Kingstree, S.C., about 110 miles southwest of Fayetteville.