No charges against Townville fire chief for cross-county chase, holding teens at gunpoint (2024)

TOWNVILLE — Two years after a small community’s fire chief chased two teens across county-lines and ordered them out of their car at gunpoint for turning around in his driveway, Townville’s Billy McAdams is settling a lawsuit against him and will not face criminal charges.

The lawsuit, filed last spring against McAdams and his son, Wyatt, is in the final stages of a settlement, according to court filings.

Oconee County Sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Watt confirmed to The Post and Courier that no charges have been filed against McAdams after the office reopened a criminal investigation into the incident last summer.

“The investigator in the case presented his evidence to the 10th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, where a determination was made not to prosecute the case based upon the evidence presented,” Watt said.

A letter the office shared from Deputy Solicitor Jason Alderman to Sheriff Mike Crenshaw cited a lack of criminal intent as the primary reason for not pressing charges.

McAdams is still the fire chief for Townville’s volunteer fire department, according to an Anderson County fire department official.

Two teens, 16 years old at the time, were driving through the 4,000-person Anderson County community when they decided to turn around in a gravel driveway owned by McAdams, according to the lawsuit filed by the teens’ families.

Moments after getting back on the road, a pickup exited the drive behind the teens’ and quickly pulled up to the bumper of their truck, allegedly trying to run them off the road, the suit says.

After trying to elude the pickup, a second truck pulled behind the teens, swerving near the back of the truck almost causing them to crash, the lawsuit says.

One teen called 911 and told responders they were being chased.

At the same time, McAdams contacted the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office with his official radio to report he was chasing the two teens alongside his son because he suspected they were trying to rob him. McAdams said he had problems with people stealing from him in recent weeks.

“He’s giving us updates like he’s being an officer,” an Anderson County 911 dispatcher said to deputies over the radio, according to a recording obtained by FOX Carolina last year.

“I’m not really following what’s happening.”

As deputies began to head toward McAdams and the teens, the fire chief and his son boxed in the teens on a dead-end road and ordered them out of their car at gunpoint, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.

Once McAdams realized how young the teens were and after hearing them say they had not stolen anything from his property, McAdams says he put down his gun, according to a court filing.

Attorneys for McAdams and the teens did not respond to The Post and Courier for comment.

Deputies interviewed everyone on the scene and presented it to a judge to see if there was enough probable cause to arrest McAdams for pointing his gun at the teens, the incident report says.

The judge said there was enough to prosecute McAdams, but if a warrant was issued against the fire chief, one would have to be issued against the teens as well, according to the incident report.

McAdams, longtime chief of Townville’s volunteer fire department, initially came into the national spotlight after he was one of the first responders to the fatal shooting at Townville Elementary School in 2016.