Chief Deputy Charles Junior Smith, 37, was shot to death on the morning of August 24, 1992, in Allendale, South Carolina. A seven-year veteran of the Allendale County Sheriff’s Department who previously served with the Allendale Police Department, Smith had been leading an investigation into a suspected narcotics operation centered at the Rainbow Motel. A week earlier, officers had found drug paraphernalia and equipment used to monitor police communications at the motel; the primary suspect escaped that search.

After dropping his son at childcare, Smith was ambushed in the parking lot of the Creekwood Apartment complex and shot more than ten times. The shooter placed Smith’s body in the back of Smith’s patrol car, drove the vehicle to Water Street Connection and abandoned it. Witnesses saw a man park the patrol car and run toward the Rainbow Motel; that man was identified as the narcotics dealer who had sold cocaine to a confidential informant and who had been the focus of Smith’s investigation.

State Law Enforcement Division agents later located the suspect. He fled when officers tried to arrest him, fired on them during a pursuit, and was killed in the resulting exchange of gunfire, leaving no arrest or trial in Smith’s murder. Does anyone have information about Chief Deputy Smith, his work in Allendale, or the Rainbow Motel operation?