NORTH CHARLESTON – The police officer and Park Circle resident who shot and killed a well-known Lowcountry musician in June will not face prosecution, according to a letter obtained by The Post and Courier.
The State Law Enforcement Division’s investigation into the June 28 police shooting of Quentin Ravenel, 34, has ended.
Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote in a letter this week to SLED Chief Mark Keel she would not charge North Charleston police officer Adrian Besancon or an unidentified Alpha Street resident in the drummer’s death.
Ravenel had been behaving erratically that night and was experiencing some sort of crisis, she wrote. In the chaotic scene that followed, Ravenel was accused of attacking a police officer, of trying to grab Besancon’s gun and forcing himself into someone’s home, she wrote.
Wilson, according to the Sept. 19 letter, said Besancon and the resident were immune from prosecution because of South Carolina’s “stand your ground” laws.
SLED’s investigating agent agreed with her, she wrote.
“I have met with Ravenel’s next-of-kin on multiple occasions and explained my decision,” Wilson wrote.
Wilson declined to immediately comment on the letter.
Wilson based her decision on SLED’s final reports, body camera footage and Ravenel’s autopsy, according to the letter. SLED’s final report has not been released. Ravenel’s autopsy was finished the week of Sept. 9.
The charging decision represents one of the last steps in the Lowcountry’s investigative procedures for the police shootings.
Wilson’s letter still leaves the circumstances leading to Ravenel’s death shrouded in questions about what occurred inside the home at 5010 Alpha St. where he had lived. Someone at Ravenel’s home, where he was an informal renter, called police about an assault inside the home and Ravenel’s out-of-character “bizarre and violent behavior,” according to the letter, and a 911 call.
Wilson wrote the facts available to investigators make it clear Ravenel was having “a psychotic episode of some sort.”
“The cause of the episode may never be known and is not an issue for me to determine,” she wrote.
A fight occurred inside the home, according to the 911 call. At the end of it, Ravenel was locked outside of the home and behaving erratically in the neighborhood. Two people inside were from being bitten and cut by a piece of glass.
“They described a bloothbath as a result of Ravenel’s attacks,” Wilson wrote. “They had never seen Ravenel behave this way.”
North Charleston police arrived at Alpha Street about half an hour after the original 911 call, according to dispatch records. An officer originally assigned to the case was diverted to a different call, according to dispatch records.
By then, Ravenel had roamed down the neighborhood toward a house near Alpha and Braddock streets and was trying to enter someone’s home. Within two minutes of police arriving, Ravenel had been shot by Besancon and a resident on that end of Alpha Street.
Besancon, Wilson said, arrived and was pointed to Ravenel as he was trying to enter someone’s home. Besancon gave Ravenel multiple commands to stop. Ravenel did not follow the officer’s orders, Wilson wrote.
Ravenel and Besancon began fighting and a bystander tried to help the officer, she wrote. Ravenel punched and bit Besancon during their struggle, she wrote. Besancon and the resident that shot Ravenel later told SLED Ravenel tried to grab Besancon’s service weapon.
Ravenel broke free of the struggle and entered the home. Besancon and the resident of the home then opened fire on Ravenel.
“The scene was chaotic and Officer Besancon was injured during Ravenel’s assault of him,” she wrote.
Wilson wrote that she could not charge the two because state law provides “complete and total immunity” from prosecution even if Besancon and the officer could have resolved the situation differently. Administrative, tactical or departmental policy failures or violations are outside of Wilson and SLED’s investigation, she wrote.
Besancon has worked for the North Charleston Police Department since 2009. He’s been praised by supervisors for removing an unattended child from a hot car, helping people with suicidal ideation go to the hospital without incident, numerous high-volume drug arrests and saving a woman from a burning car in 2021.
He had been reprimanded for violating NCPD’s vehicle pursuit policy early in his career, according to his personnel file. Later on, his bosses praised his judgment, quality of his work and calm demeanor resulting in rare uses of force.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)