A police officer in South Carolina has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a driver who was attempting to speed away after a confrontation with the off-duty cop outside a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Summerville.
Summerville police officer Anthony DeLustro, 64, allegedly shot 39-year-old Michael O'Neal in a parking lot March 20 after the two men had a physical altercation, according to a statement from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Witnesses said DeLustro initiated the argument, according to a police affidavit.
"Do you want to do this?" O'Neal repeated several times to DeLustro, recounted one witness.
"Come on, you f------ f-----," DeLustro responded, using a gay slur, according to witnesses.
Both men got out of their cars and exchanged kicks and punches as bystanders tried to intervene, the HuffPost reported.
As O'Neal tried to leave, DeLustro told him he was under arrest and presented his police credentials, according to witnesses.
DeLustro's wife then reportedly tried to block O'Neal from climbing into O'Neal's car.
But the off-duty cop got into the passenger side of O'Neal's car, and allegedly shot him as O'Neal tried to drive away.
Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell said the bullet entered O'Neal's right arm and traveled to his chest, killing him.
Before his arrest Wednesday DeLustro reportedly investigators he acted in self-defense and shot O'Neal because he thought his legs were trapped under the moving car.
In a video call from jail Wednesday evening, DeLustro asked a judge to show him mercy as he and his wife are the primary caretakers of their two granddaughters following their mother's death in 2021.
DeLustro served as an officer for the New York Police Department from 1980 to 2003. He retired before a review board could investigate a complaint filed against him.
He had previously been cleared of two separate accusations of misconduct.
In a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his parents, O'Neal's cousin, Amy Nail, said that his father had been a police officer in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for over 30 years.
"This is a family that has a great deal of respect for law enforcement in general, yet is fully aware that no profession is free of bad actors," she wrote.
