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DSS shooting suspect is transferred

Officials move David Mark Hill from Columbia prison to Bishopville to continue recovery from gun wound

Web posted January 2, 1997

By Kathy Steele
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - The man charged with killing three Aiken County social workers has been moved from a Columbia prison where he was recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to a new facility in Bishopville.

But Aiken County Public Defender Regina Poteat said Tuesday that a preliminary hearing in Aiken County for David Mark Hill can't be scheduled until her client is fully recovered.

``I'm still waiting for doctors to fill me in on his position,'' she said, adding that later this month would be the earliest possible date for a hearing.

Ms. Poteat said she hadn't been told by state correction officials that Mr. Hill had been transferred.

State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan Montgomery said Tuesday that records show Mr. Hill was moved to Lee County Correctional Institution on Nov. 22. The prison is about 40 miles northeast of Columbia.

Mr. Hill had been held at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia since his release from Medical College of Georgia Hospital on Oct. 2. The state prison was chosen because it had medical facilities available.

Police say Mr. Hill, 36, who was angry that his children were being put into foster care, walked into the North Augusta office of the Aiken County Department of Social Services on Sept. 16 and shot three caseworkers with a semiautomatic handgun.

Josie Curry, 35, and Jimmy Riddle, 52, died at the Medical College of Georgia. The body of Michael Gregory, 30, was found in a bathroom at the DSS office.

Mr. Hill fled into nearby woods, where police found him the next day lying near railroad tracks about a mile from the office. He had shot himself in the head.

He is charged with three counts of murder, one count of kidnapping and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill.