Crime & Safety

Cousin: Two Brothers, Father, Grandmother Dead in Shootings

The Pickens County Sheriff's Department is investigating four deaths on a Liberty property

Pickens County Sheriff's deputies continue to investigate morning shootings that left four dead in two homes in a rural area near Liberty.

Deputies responding to a 911 call this morning found two people dead in a mobile home on a Pinedale Road property and two others dead in a second mobile home approximately 100 yards away on the same property, according to police.

Police said all four victims were related, but have not identified them.

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Stephanie Hopkins of Easley, a relative, told Patch the victims were Mark Hendricks, his sons -- Matt, 23, and Marshall, 20 -- and his mother, Linda Burns.

Earlier reports indicated that one of the brothers was also the shooter and that the deaths were a murder/suicide, but deputies have not confirmed that.

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"Right now it's unclear whether the shooter is one of the dead," said Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan.

Hopkins said she doesn't believe that it was one of the victims who did the shooting, as one report indicated.

"He loved his brother and his daddy," Hopkins said. "He would never do this to them."

Tammy Powell, a friend of the family said Susan Hendricks, the mother of the two sons, is being questioned by police.

"There was a prior incident where she shot and killed an intruder," Morgan said.

In 2006 Doyle O’Brian Teague was shot and killed at Susan Hendricks' home, according to police. The incident report from the event states that Hendricks told police she was on her way out to bring food to neighbors when Teague entered her home without her permission. When police arrived on the scene Hendricks was on the front porch holding a handgun.

"We presented the information to the solicitor's office and she was never prosecuted," Morgan said.

Police are not calling Friday's shootings homicides, but Morgan said they will continue to treat them as homicides until they can prove otherwise.

"My daughter was just there last night until midnight and said everything was fine," Powell said. Powell didn't believe that any of the victims would have committed the killings.

Morgan said one of the victims made a call to another relative who in turn called police at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. All four victims were killed by gunshot wounds, police said.

"We're waiting on forensics at this point and right now this is still under investigation," Morgan said.

The motive for the killings remains unknown.


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