COLUMBIA, SC – A South Carolina death row inmate convicted of murdering three men was executed by firing squad Friday evening, marking one of the state’s recent uses of the controversial execution method.
Stephen Bryant, 44, was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. at a state prison facility after being shot by three prison employees. Bryant chose the firing squad as his method of execution and made no final statement before a hood was placed over his head. Death occurred within seconds of the shots being fired.
Bryant was convicted of fatally shooting Willard “TJ” Tietjen at the victim’s home. Following the murder, prosecutors said Bryant burned Tietjen’s eyes with cigarettes and used the victim’s blood to write a chilling message on the wall: “victim 4 in 2 weeks. Catch me if you can.” Candles were arranged around the body in what investigators described as a staged crime scene.
Prosecutors also charged Bryant with shooting two additional men in October 2004 in Sumter County. According to court documents, Bryant offered rides to the victims before shooting them “in the back as they stopped to urinate on the side of rural roads.”
Key testimony in the case came from Bryant’s daughter, Kimberly Dees, who told the court that when she called her father’s home, a stranger answered the phone. The man identified himself as “the prowler” and told her: “You can’t, I killed him.”
Bryant had 10 witnesses present at the execution, which was carried out by prison employees trained specifically for the task. According to witnesses, Bryant made no noise after being shot, showing only shallow breaths and a brief spasm before being officially pronounced dead.
South Carolina has increasingly turned to alternative execution methods as lethal injection drugs have become more difficult to obtain. The state Legislature approved the use of firing squads in 2021 as an option alongside the electric chair.
The execution marks the latest chapter in a case that horrified the Sumter County community more than two decades ago. Prosecutors described Bryant as a calculating killer who deliberately targeted his victims and attempted to taunt law enforcement with his gruesome crime scenes.
