Trey Pringle

Trey Pringle, 24, a man with a documented history of mental illness, died three days after Beaufort County, South Carolina sheriff's deputies Tased him multiple times during a welfare check at his family's home on February 17, 2018. His family called 911 specifically requesting medical assistance. The situation escalated inside the home; deputies said Pringle struck and kicked them before he was Tased repeatedly and restrained, and a firefighter assisting on scene, Brandon Corey Thomsen, was separately accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of placing Pringle in a chokehold. Pringle suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, where he died three days later. Medical examiners at the Medical University of South Carolina ruled the death a homicide. After an eight-month investigation, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone announced in February 2019 that no criminal charges would be filed against anyone involved. No one has ever been charged in Pringle's death.

Seabrook, SC · Beaufort County

• 2018: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The welfare-check call, the struggle inside the home, and the Taser deployments, per dash camera footage and audio the Solicitor's office released publicly.
• Pringle's family called 911 specifically to have him evaluated for medical and mental health assistance.
• Deputies told their captain afterward that Pringle struck one of them in the face three times and kicked another in the face before he was Tased and restrained.
• A wrongful death lawsuit separately accused Beaufort firefighter Brandon Corey Thomsen, who was assisting deputies on scene, of placing Pringle in a chokehold before he went into cardiac arrest.
• Medical examiners at the Medical University of South Carolina ruled Pringle's manner of death a homicide on his death certificate.
• The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division conducted an eight-month investigation, including 30 interviews, roughly 33 hours of audio and dash camera footage, and approximately 500 photographs.
• 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone announced in February 2019 that no one involved would face criminal charges, stating Pringle's death was “a tragedy, but not the result of a crime,” and his office publicly released nearly two hours of the underlying video and audio evidence.
• In 2020, Thomsen was separately wanted on unrelated child sex crime charges; Beaufort community members publicly noted he had never faced any charge in connection with Pringle's death despite the chokehold allegation.

• Whether the chokehold a lawsuit specifically attributed to firefighter Thomsen, as opposed to the Taser deployments alone, caused or substantially contributed to Pringle's cardiac arrest and the homicide ruling on his death certificate was never independently tested at any criminal trial since none was brought.
• Why a death certified as homicide by medical examiners did not result in criminal charges against anyone present has not been fully reconciled in the Solicitor's public statements beyond his general finding of no criminal conduct.
• What specific crisis-intervention training, if any, the responding deputies and assisting firefighter had before encountering a call explicitly described in advance as a mental health welfare check has not been detailed in available public reporting.

• WTOC — “Deputies not facing charges after man died following struggle with Beaufort County officers”
• WSAV — “Dash camera video, audio sheds new light on Trey Pringle's death”
• FITSNews — “Beaufort Firefighter Accused Of Chokehold In Trey Pringle Death Wanted [for child sex crimes]”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs