NORTH CHARLESTON — The man charged in the fatal shooting of a North Charleston sanitation worker waived his preliminary bond hearing Nov. 6 after his extradition back to South Carolina.
Tyrell Smith, 24, is charged with murder in the killing of Da’tawn Gatling, 26, as he was driving a sanitation recycling truck in the Whitfield subdivision, according to previous reporting by The Post and Courier.
On July 18, Gatling drove the truck out of the subdivision and into a tree, where EMS personnel found him suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead hours after the incident.
Smith left South Carolina and headed to New York, where he was apprehended by U.S. Marshals on Aug. 1, The Post and Courier has reported.
Smith spent the last three months fighting extradition, said Harve Jacobs, North Charleston police spokesperson.
Jacobs said Smith is a South Carolina resident but he opposed extradition back to the state from New York.
Smith waived his right to a preliminary bond hearing approximately 30 minutes before the scheduled hearing time, according to bond court clerks. The hearing is a formality because a magistrate cannot grant bond to a person charged with murder, but it would have afforded Smith an initial appearance before a judge.
He remains in incarceration at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center on charges of murder, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime and second degree domestic violence.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
