Cops: Man Dies After Checking on Booby-Trapped Home

Deputies in South Carolina say Jordan Dove, 34, was blasted by a shotgun attached to back door
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2025 2:19 PM CST

Police in South Carolina say a man was killed while checking on a relative's booby-trapped home this week. Per a release from the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office cited by the State, deputies responding to a residence in St. Matthews after a shooting report found 34-year-old Jordan Dove suffering from a gunshot wound. First responders whisked Dove to the hospital, but he died after arrival, authorities say.

Cops soon determined the gunfire had come from inside the house. They suspected that the vacant home may have been booby-trapped, so "a perimeter was set around the residence as deputies slowly made entry into the home," per the release. Once inside, they discovered a shotgun that had been attached to the back door in such a way that the gun would go off if anyone tried to get inside, per the sheriff's office statement. The jerry-rigged contraption was then dismantled.

Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers says that charges will soon be brought against 66-year-old Alfonzo Brown, who the release notes is "incarcerated out of state." WLTX and WUSA9 say the home belongs to Dove's uncle. "This was a very dangerous situation that appeared to be targeted towards law enforcement," Summers says in the release, suggesting that Brown had set up the firearm to keep police out. (More freak accident stories.)

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