By Stan Welch
Brandon Nathan Tyson a seventeen year old white male, who had recently withdrawn from Wren High School, died early Saturday morning after sustaining two gun shot wounds from the homeowner of the residence at 210 Merritt Drive in the Wren area.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Deputy C.D. Sellars was dispatched to that location in response to “an emotionally unstable” subject, according to his filed incident report. The report states that he found a male with a serious laceration to the left side of his face, and a subject on the garage floor with a gun shot wound to the head. Mark Chastain, WM, 40, 5’11″, 210 pounds, and homeowner of the residence was transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital and admitted to the ICU. Tyson, 17, WM, 6’3″,155 pounds, was also transported to GMH where he was declared dead at 3:55 a.m.
Tyson was at the home with friends after the Wren football game Friday night, when, according to witnesses, he began to behave in a bizarre and erratic manner. He reportedly began breaking windows and continued to damage property. He eventually made so much noise that Chastain awoke and came down stairs to investigate.
According to those close to the investigation, which is ongoing, Chastain tried to calm Tyson. With little apparent success. Eventually, Chastain fired two shots. One was a superficial wound to Tyson’s neck; the other one was the fatal shot.
ACSO Lt. Digirolamo, Investigators Farley and Russell, and forensic investigator McElrath were dispatched to the scene. At press time, no charges had been filed in the shooting. Coroner Greg Shore said that the toxicology evidence had been sent to SLED for testing. “Usually we would anticipate six to eight weeks wait for results, but I expect they will speed that up for this case, since a death is involved.”
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