The head of North Charleston's NAACP called for sensitivity training for city police, saying the officer who faked his own shooting apparently thought the story would be more accepted if blame fell on a black assailant.
"The people over in that community should be owed an apology," branch President Ed Bryant said Saturday, a day after Sgt. Eddie Bullard's July 4th claim that he had been shot was exposed as a self-inflicted wound.
"Here a black, there a black, everywhere a black; they could say 'they' did it," Bryant said.
The comments came a day after Police Chief Jon Zumalt announced that Bullard shot himself in his protective vest and made up a story that he was wounded by his own gun during a struggle with an attacker.
On Saturday, police department spokesman Spencer Pryor said the investigation is continuing and includes tracing the origin of the report of the supposed attacker's skin color.
Pryor said the alleged attacker's race was not heard in Bullard's initial radio call for help, but surfaced after officers responded to the report of a fellow officer down.
Bullard, 46, was found outside a Rivers Avenue Carpet Wholesalers store around 5 a.m., telling officers he had been jumped from behind after stopping to talk with a suspicious man he saw standing outside the store.
Bullard reported the man who jumped him tried to get his gun, and during the struggle the weapon fired twice, hitting him in the abdomen section of his bullet-proof vest. He was not severely injured.
Hours later, and for two days afterward, the alleged gunman was described as a black man in black clothing.
On Saturday, Mayor Keith Summey said the city did its proper diligence in investigating and then exposing Bullard's account, pointing to the 15-year veteran officer's mental condition and stresses at home as contributing factors.
"That's still no excuse," the mayor said.
Summey added that the city should be credited for quickly exposing a falsehood, then making a public correction. "If we make a mistake, we admit a mistake was made," he said.
In a press conference Friday, Zumalt issued a blanket apology, saying "I'm sorry to the community" for what transpired. The chief noted that early on it was suspected that the facts did not support Bullard's account.
"There just wasn't anything that corroborated what (Bullard) was saying," Zumalt said, adding that Ballard finally admitted on Friday to lying about the incident.
The officer was suspended without pay pending further investigation. Officials did not elaborate on his mental status, citing privacy concerns. The State Law Enforcement Division is also investigating, with criminal charges a possibility.
North Charleston NAACP leader Bryant said the incident has tarnished innocent residents of the community and said the report was "the same as the Susan Smith case," the 1995 Union County case of a mother who told police that she been carjacked by a black man and her two young sons inside the car were taken.
That story also unraveled and Smith was exposed for being responsible for drowning the two boys.
"I think the community is hot because the blame was already thrown on their backs," Bryant said, adding that there was outrage in the black neighborhoods as well over reports of an officer was shot.
Bryant commended Zumalt for moving quickly to disclose Ballard's lie, but said more needs to be done in terms of improving race relations, since the story was anchored by the false claim that the shooter was black.
"Obviously he had some propensity to believe somebody in the police department would support it," he said.
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