Autopsy results show hostage taker shot 5 times

From staff reports
Published: August 5, 2008

The man who Florence County sheriff’s investigators said took a 13-year-old boy hostage Monday was shot five times, autopsy results show.

Thomas John Dick, 40, was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering five gunshot wounds to the upper body, Florence County Coroner M.G. “Bubba” Matthews said.

The two-hour hostage situation near Pamplico ended Monday morning after Florence County Sheriff’s Office SWAT deputies shot and killed Dick and rescued the boy, Sheriff Kenney Boone said Monday.

The boy is safe and in in the custody of his mother, whom Boone said was Dick’s girlfriend.

A relative to the boy who was at the scene said Monday was the boy’s 13th birthday.

An autopsy on Dick’s body was performed at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, Matthews said.