Troubled South Carolina legal scion Alex Murdaugh had no “visible injury” when he called 911 to say he’d been shot in the head, according to a newly released police report — despite his lawyer’s claim that he had significant bleeding from entry and exit wounds.
Murdaugh — whose wife and 22-year-old son were shot dead in June — had told police that a mystery drive-by gunman shot at him repeatedly on Saturday as he stopped to repair a slashed tire on his late wife’s SUV as he drove down a quiet rural road in Varnville.
It came just two days before he was also booted from his powerful law firm, accused of stealing at least $1 million, and also before he entered rehab for drug addiction.
Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, had told The Post and Courier that the now-suspended lawyer had suffered significant wounds in Saturday’s shooting, saying the bullet left entry and exit wounds, fractured his skull and left him hemorrhaging blood.
“He’s very lucky to be alive,” Griffin told the local paper, saying he believed his client was the victim of a set-up by a gunman who earlier slashed the tires to make him pull over.
Investigators, however, initially said that he was reported to have suffered a “superficial gunshot wound to the head,” without specifying what that entailed.
Now a new police report obtained by The Post and Courier showed that the responding officers did not even see that — instead ticking a box confirming that Murdaugh had no “visible injury.”
The report also gives no detail on the reported gunman, who Griffin claimed had even circled back to fire on Murdaugh after the initial shots.
A possible name, race, ethnicity and gender for the suspect are all listed as unknown, The Post and Courier said. Investigators have still not released any information about a possible suspect.
Despite the lack of serious injury — as well as Murdaugh’s ability to talk to responding officers after calling 911 — he was airlifted to a local hospital by a helicopter that landed on the highway.
It was not immediately clear why such drastic action was requested for at most a superficial wound.
Local outlet FitsNews — which runs a podcast, “Murdaugh Murders” — also claimed that the disgraced lawyer’s black Mercedes had “extended mobility tires,” which would have allowed him to drive 50 miles with a flat, raising questions over why he pulled over.
The Murdaughs are one of South Carolina’s most prominent legal families, with three generations having served consecutively as solicitor for the 14th Circuit.
Alex hit the spotlight in June after finding his wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, dead from multiple gunshot wounds near a kennel outside the family’s hunting lodge near Islandton.
At the time, Paul Murdaugh was facing trial in the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach in a crash of a boat he was reportedly manning at the time.
No one has been arrested in the double murders, which are still being investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), which is also probing Alex Murdaugh’s reported shooting.
After entering rehab, Murdaugh was on Wednesday also suspended from practicing law by the South Carolina Supreme Court amid the investigation into his alleged behavior at his law firm.
This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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