SLED issues Blue Alert, suspect may have headed toward Bamberg County

Residents in and around Bamberg County were briefly on alert Monday night after the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division issued a Blue Alert warning that a suspect may have been headed toward the county. The statewide notice went out at 10:34 p.m. and was canceled 80 minutes later, after officers took 37-year-old Lacey Nicole Cushman into custody in Orangeburg County.

SLED said the incident began with a vehicle chase that started in Orangeburg County and continued into Barnwell County, where Cushman allegedly fired into the vehicle occupied by Springfield Police Chief Adam Evans. The shooting happened on Gardenia Road in the Blackville area of Barnwell County, close enough to Bamberg County to trigger an urgent public-safety warning for people watching the roads that connect the counties.

The alert described Cushman as 5-foot-9, 200 pounds, with brown eyes. It also identified the vehicle as a white 2011 Chevrolet Traverse with South Carolina tag 7061RU and a trailer hitch, details meant to help drivers and deputies spot it quickly if it turned up on local roads. For Bamberg County, the immediate concern was not just the shooting itself, but the possibility that the pursuit could spill farther west before law enforcement closed in.

WLTX reported that the officer was seriously injured in the shooting and that authorities had not publicly released his identity or condition at the time of that report. The People Sentinel later identified him as Springfield Police Chief Adam Evans and reported that he was home recovering. The paper also said family members thanked the community for prayers and support, while noting that Evans has served as chief in Springfield and previously worked in Salley, Wagener and Williston.

SLED says South Carolina’s Blue Alert program was signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley on Feb. 27, 2012, to broadcast critical information to the public as quickly as possible. The agency says the system is used when an officer has been killed, seriously injured or kidnapped, the suspect poses a danger to the public, and there is enough information to share with residents. In this case, those criteria turned a Barnwell County shooting into a fast-moving regional warning that put Bamberg County on notice until the suspect was found.