Judge orders mental review in SC police ambush shooting case
By: The Associated Press, policeone.com
FLORENCE, S.C. — A judge has ordered a man who authorities say killed two police officers in an ambush from his upscale South Carolina home to have a mental examination.
Prosecutor Ed Clements asked for the examination Monday after 74-year-old Frederick Hopkins wrote to the Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston and blamed post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Vietnam for the Oct. 3 shooting.
Authorities say Hopkins shot at police officers he knew were coming to his Florence home to question his son and serve a search warrant, continuing to shoot as others tried to save the wounded. Seven officers were struck.
