WINNSBORO (Nov. 6, 2015) – Two Winnsboro men were injured and a suspect was gut-shot and critically wounded during a botched home invasion last week.
Chief of Public Safety Freddie Lorick said Anthony Russell Jr. heard a knock on the front door of his home on Fairfield Street just before 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 27 and heard someone on the other side of the door call out “F.B.I.!” Russell, who was up watching television at the time, was just getting off the couch to answer when two armed, masked men kicked in the door and rushed into the home.
Once inside, Lorick said, the two assailants started shooting, peppering the living room with gunfire. Russell was nicked on the right wrist, but was not seriously injured. He was later treated in the home by EMS.
As the shooting escalated, Russell’s father, Anthony Russell Sr., emerged from a back bedroom wielding a .357 Magnum, Lorick said, and returned fire on the suspects. For a few terrifying moments, chaos reigned, with the suspects eventually fleeing under a hail of gunfire. Lorick said Russell Sr. was fairly certain his hand-cannon had struck true at least once on at least one victim. A large pool of blood at the scene appeared to validate those suspicions.
A notice was sent out to area hospitals, Lorick said, looking for a gunshot victim. A few hours later, a report came in from Spartanburg County. Joseph Michael Mosley Jr. had been dumped on the front steps of a home in Union County, Lorick said, bleeding profusely from an apparent gunshot wound to the stomach and arm. He was transported by ambulance to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center where Lorick said he was in critical condition, regaining consciousness only Tuesday afternoon.
Investigators sent Mosley’s bloody clothes to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for analysis, to be compared with blood left by the wounded suspect at the crime scene.
Russell Sr. incurred a minor wound to a foot during the melee, stepping on shards of glass broken in the gunfight. He was also treated by EMS at the home.
