Man charged in 1981 Berkeley Co. shooting, kidnapping of 2 teens

Bruce Allen Kirkpatrick has been charged with a kidnapping and shooting in Berkeley County.
Bruce Allen Kirkpatrick has been charged with a kidnapping and shooting in Berkeley County.
Published: Dec. 12, 2018 at 7:53 PM EST
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BERKELEY COUNTY, SC (WCSC) - Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis announced an arrest in a 1981 cold case on Wednesday morning.

Bruce Allen Kirkpatrick has now been charged in the kidnapping and shooting of two Goose Creek teens 37 years ago where both women survived, Lewis said. He has been formally charged with two counts of assault and battery with attempt to kill, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery.

“Their innocence was lost that day because an individual targeted them with a violent crime," Sheriff Lewis said at a news conference.

Kirkpatrick is currently in the Berkeley County jail and being held without bond.

Deputies now say Kirkpatrick shot the two teens in the back and left them in the trunk of a car on Foster Creek Road near Hanahan. One of the victims is now paralyzed. It happened in what is now the St. James Estates area and Kirkpatrick drove them to what is now the Tanner Plantation area, Lewis said.

“When I turned around he was standing right there with a gun in my face," Laura Patteson recalled Wednesday.

“He told us to get around to the back of the trunk, put our hands on the trunk," Sara Snider said.

That’s when they say Kirkpatrick shot both of them in the back.

He then put them in the trunk.

“He took off 'cause he threatened my mom’s car and drove crazy out there, told us if we didn’t shut up he would kill us," Snider said.

The women say the trunk stayed unlocked and they played dead.

“He would never be able to shut it. He tried, it never would lock. We held it down so he would think it was locked and we held our breath," Snider said.

They say soon it got quiet and the gunman was gone.

Snider managed to get out of the trunk and crawled to flag down a driver.

Both women survived but unfortunately Patteson was paralyzed.

Kirkpatrick was living as a registered sex offender in Charleston County at the time of his arrest. Lewis wouldn’t talk specifically about the evidence that led to an arrest, but added that the original evidence that wa

l collected in 1981 was properly preserved and collected.

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