A South Carolina deputy is on paid leave after shooting a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran in an incident that was all caught on dash cam.
The deputy, whose name wasn't reported, stopped Bobby Canipe for an expired license plate last month as the elderly man was driving home to North Carolina after attending the Daytona 500 in Florida.
In newly-released dash cam video, Canipe is seen exiting his vehicle, and appears not to respond to the deputy as he addressed him from the patrol car. Canipe then grabbed his walking cane from the back of his truck, which the deputy mistook for a rifle.
"Hey sir. Sir, sir," the deputy can be heard saying as Canipe pulls out the walking cane. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!"
The deputy fired six shots, hitting Canipe once in the abdomen. He yelled at the veteran to "drop the gun."
"It's a walking stick," Canipe responds.
The deputy becomes distraught, rushing to the man to attend to him until paramedics arrived on the scene. A colleague can be heard comforting the deputy as he sobs on the side of the road in reaction to his mistake.
Canipe survived his wound.
