Of the seven police officers transported, five were taken to McLeod Medical Center and two were transported to Carolinas Hospital Systems. Four of the five civilians were also transported to Carolinas Hospital Systems, while the other was taken to McLeod Medical Center, Hatchell says. ||||| A veteran Florence police officer was killed and six other law enforcement officers wounded when a sniper with a high-powered rifle opened fire on them Wednesday as they tried to serve a warrant. 
 
 A disabled Vietnam veteran and disbarred lawyer, 74-year-old Fred T. Hopkins Jr. of Florence, is the only suspect in custody in what’s believed to be the nation’s bloodiest officer shooting since five Dallas police officers were killed and nine wounded on July 7, 2016. 
 
 “The way the suspect was positioned, his view of fire was several hundred yards. He had an advantage,” said Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone. 
 
 Florence County deputies arrived at Hopkins’ home in Vintage Place, a quiet, upscale neighborhood near Florence, at about 4 p.m. Wednesday to serve a routine search warrant. Instead, they were ambushed by an unseen suspect firing shots from the home’s second story, according to law enforcement officials. Florence police officers arrived on the scene to provide backup and were quickly targeted too in a fury of firepower rarely encountered by law enforcement. 
 
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 A two-hour standoff ensued as the suspect barricaded himself in the home with children. Police resorted to a bulletproof military vehicle to collect the wounded before Hopkins surrendered to a negotiator, according to police officials. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Terrence Carraway, 52, an officer with the Florence Police Department for nearly 31 years, died from his wounds. As of Thursday afternoon, one officer was still in the hospital, officials said. Florence Police Chief Allen Heidler said that officer is in serious but stable condition. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Two other police officers were released from the hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, the chief said in a news conference. Three sheriff’s deputies also were injured, but Heidler did not know their conditions. 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 27-year-old unidentified man also was shot and injured during the standoff, police said. He reportedly was the target of the search warrant, which stemmed from an allegation of a sexual assault on a minor, according to various media reports. 
 
 Hopkins and his wife, Cheryl, a Florence divorce attorney, have nine adopted children, according to state officials. 
 
 As of late Thursday afternoon, Hopkins still had not been charged, according to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, whose department has been asked to investigate the shooting. 
 
 
 
 
 
 “It’s a process that we have to go through,” Lott said, and would not elaborate. 
 
 Reporters asked Lott whether there are any other suspects. He only reiterated that there is one suspect in custody. 
 
 “I don’t want to say that at this point,” he said. “We do have a suspect in custody, but there is no danger to the community.” 
 
 That the Florence County sheriff would ask Lott’s department rather than the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate has raised eyebrows. 
 
 Lott said his department was asked to investigate because the incident is being considered a homicide, “and our officers have that experience.” He would not elaborate. 
 
 “It’s a tragic time for everyone involved,” Lott said. 
 
 Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott gives a press conference in Florence to talk about the shooting of seven Florence area police, one of whom was killed, while executing a search warrant. Oct. 4, 2018 Jason Lee jlee@thesunnews.com 
 
 One witness’s account 
 
 Ann Dowdy lives near the entrance of the subdivision and was home around 4 p.m. She was preparing to return to work and took her dog, Max, for a walk. 
 
 “It was a normal day,” Dowdy said. “It was a more peaceful day than normal.” 
 
 She walked along Stockdown Drive, a few blocks from the Hopkins house. The area was quiet. 
 
 Around 4:30, she returned home and was getting into her car when a string of police cruisers sped down the street, she said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Police officers yelled for her to get into the house, and Dowdy pulled her 14-year-old son inside. They watched the scene unfold through a window. 
 
 “It was just like, ‘Boom, boom, boom,’ all at one time. A flood of law enforcement over and over and over and over,” Dowdy said. “Then I saw ambulances. Then they brought the SWAT team in. Then they bought the armored vehicle in, and I knew it was seriously, seriously an issue.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Listen to this audio from police radio traffic after a suspect shot multiple law enforcement officers in West Florence, South Carolina, Oct. 3, 2018. 
 
 After 15 minutes, Dowdy said, she got a text message that said there was an active shooter in the neighborhood. Friends started to call to check on her safety. 
 
 Parents of other children in the subdivision called and asked if she could check on their families. But Dowdy was stuck in her own home as the standoff unfolded. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dowdy said she didn’t hear any gunshots, but it only took minutes to learn several police had been shot. 
 
 “What is the world coming to? How can this happen in our backyard — literally in our backyard?” Dowdy said. 
 
 Firefighter recalls ‘hail of bullets’ 
 
 The West Florence Fire Department received a call of an officer down around 4 p.m. They had no idea it would become seven officers shot and an active scene. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ”You just hear a hail of bullets,” said Battalion Chief Dustin Fails, who was a few thousand feet from the shooting. “One of the guys described it as you could smell the gunpowder in the air. That’s how much shooting was going on. You knew something big was going on.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK West Florence Battalion Chief Dustin Fails describes the scene when he and his crew responded to the Florence police shooting on Wednesday that left six officers injured and one dead. 
 
 Two other firefighters were in the “hot zone,” where the shooting put their lives at risk, according to Fails, who said they were six feet from one of the officers when he was shot and the firefighters retreated behind a truck. They were eventually evacuated by other police officers. 
 
 
 
 
 
 “Thank the Lord they were OK, but it just shows how fast this thing could go downhill,” said Fails, adding the firefighters were forced to wait to get to the patients. 
 
 Who is Fred Hopkins, the suspected shooter? 
 
 The shooting suspect was a disbarred lawyer, according to the Associated Press, who has posted on social media about his shooting ability. 
 
 In recent years, Hopkins has had a few minor run-ins with police, including a 2014 charge of public disorderly conduct, according to court records. He was also charged in 2015 for not paying a court-ordered fine. A jury found him guilty of failing to pay up in 2017, records show. 
 
 Hopkins, a New York native who moved to the Columbia area as a young man, served in the Vietnam War, was injured during his time overseas and received military disability, according to court filings, divorce records and those who know him. 
 
 Hopkins was never the same after returning from the war and remained troubled, said a distant relative of Hopkins who asked not to be named. Hopkins was previously married and had two sons before marrying Cheryl Hopkins and moving to Florence, according to friends. 
 
 Fred Hopkins Facebook 
 
 Meredith Todd Taylor, who has lived in the Vintage Placeneighborhood for 14 years, knew the Hopkins family. 
 
 “I would describe them as a family out of control,” she said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dowdy said that neighbors had trouble with the children. 
 
 A Florence deputy said the victim of the alleged sexual assault was a foster child in the home, WIS-TV reported. However, none of the children living in the Hopkins’ home were foster children, according to Pam Bryant, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Social Services. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Judy Gibson, who said she was a longtime family friend, described the Hopkins as a loving family that included nine children, all of whom were adopted at birth. 
 
 “I loved those kids like they were our own,” Gibson said, who babysat the children and also cleaned the family’s home and law office. “Why this tragedy happened? I cannot answer that. I am still in shock.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 Support for fallen officer 
 
 Support for the fallen officer poured in from officials and police departments around the country. 
 
 Hundreds attended a candlelight vigil service at First Presbyterian Church in Florence Thursday night. 
 
 Several chaplains addressed the crowd and spoke of Carraway, the officers shot and the community’s support for law enforcement. 
 
 “He was just a loving person” said Cecil Bromell, pastor of Macedonia Missionary Methodist church where Carraway was a member. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK A candlelight service was held at the First Baptist Church in Florence for Sgt. Terrence Carraway who was killed in a shooting Wednesday night that left six other police officers wounded. 
 
 S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said in a Wednesday evening Tweet: “This is simply devastating news from Florence. The selfless acts of bravery from the men and women in law enforcement is real, just like the power of prayer is real.” The governor added, “Peggy and I ask that you pray for them, pray for their recovery, pray for their families, and pray for all of Florence.” 
 
 The tragedy gained national attention too with President Donald Trump writing on Twitter: “My thoughts and prayers are with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office and the Florence Police Department tonight, in South Carolina. We are forever grateful for what our Law Enforcement Officers do 24/7/365.” 
 
 Governor Henry McMaster visited with wounded police officers and their families at McLeod Hospital in Florence on Thursday afternoon. Seven law enforcement officers were shot, one fatally, during a standoff with police in a Florence neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon. Oct. 4, 2018 Jason Lee jlee@thesunnews.com
– A clearer picture is emerging from Wednesday's assault on police officers at a home in an upscale neighborhood in Florence, South Carolina. Seven officers were shot, one of them fatally, before police arrested 74-year-old Frederick Hopkins after a two-hour standoff. Police had gone to the home to serve a warrant, though not to Hopkins. Details and developments: The start: Police went to Hopkins' home about 4pm with a search warrant related to an unidentified 27-year-old man living in the home. The younger man, who is accused of sexual assault of a minor on a foster child in the residence, ended up being shot and wounded during the gunfire, reports WMBF. The shooting: Authorities say Hopkins set up with a high-powered rifle by a second-story window, a vantage point that gave him a clear shot at officers on the scene, reports the State. In fact, police had to use an armored vehicle to collect the wounded during the siege.