Lexington County law enforcement shot and killed a 19-year-old in West Columbia Friday afternoon after he threatened his brother with a handgun and fired at officers, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspect has been identified as Tyler Mehki Sincere Boages, who "died of multiple gunshots to the upper body according to Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher," the sheriff's department states in a news release.

“It's been a tough day to be quite honest,” Sheriff Jay Koon told reporters on the scene at the Quails Hollow apartment complex on Feather Run Trail, where the deceased is said to have threatened his sibling and then run out the back into thick woods before firing multiple shots at officers who returned fire, killing him.

Koon, who stood with West Columbia Police Chief Marion Boyce, said the deceased had a long history of mental illness.

“We received a 9-11 call at about 11:19 this morning ... by a frantic mother who said that her son with mental issues was threatening her other son with a handgun,” the sheriff said. “About that time we got there the son with a handgun exited out the back of the apartments into a wood line across the power line and into some pretty thick woods. Officers from both our agencies circled up there and set up a perimeter like we do. At some point, the suspect came out, was verbally challenged, given commands by the officers. He fired rounds at the officers and multiple officers returned fire, striking the suspect.”

Koon said it is unknown at this time which officers struck and killed Boages. 

"No officers were injured in the incident, which happened in a portion of Lexington County sandwiched by West Columbia city limits," the sheriff's department release states

Koon said that his department has contacted the state Law Enforcement Division to investigate the incident, as is the department’s policy for all officer-involved shootings.

"SLED agents will conduct interviews with all potential witnesses in this matter," SLED states in a news release about the incident. "Further, SLED will collect all relevant evidence and will forensically test such evidence as needed."

SLED says this was the 16th officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2022 and the year's first involving the Lexington County Sheriff's Department or West Columbia Police. Last year, the sheriff's department was inovlved in one officer-involved shooting, and West Columbia Police were involved in none.

The sheriff's department release states that four Lexington County deputies and two West Columbia officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after the incident. 

"There is no active threat to the community," the sheriff's department posted to social media at 1:39 p.m.

Koon said he was told Boages was out on bond from Richland County after being arrested for murder. Court records confirm that Boages was released on a $75,000 surety bond in September 2021 after being charged  with murder in January 2021.

Boages was one of two teenagers arrested for murder after a shooting in December 2020 that caused a driver to crash into a building on Broad River Road, according to WIS.

“He had a pistol with a big drum, high-capacity magazine,” Koon said.

The sheriff said it hasn’t been determined how Boages got the gun, but that will be part of the investigation.

Koon spoke at length about the need for mental health reform and judicial reform to keep incidents like this from occurring.

“We talk about criminal justice reform, police reform. Our elected leaders, national elected leaders beat their chests about police reform,” he said. “How about judicial reform? How about mental health reform? It seems like our world is hurting in a lot of places, as we've seen. At the end of the day, we deal with it, and our officers are getting shot at, murdered, the way society is. We've seen it way too close to home over these last couple of months. Hopefully, sooner or later, we're going to wake up and put our priorities in the right places.”

“We've got to get people consequences on the backend,” he added. “COVID obviously shut some of that down. We gotta get some consequences. Because if you never have a consequence, there's no punishment.”

When a reporter asked about how officers determine when to use deadly force, Koon said now is not the time to talk about that.

“This is about a grieving family,” he said. “This is about a thorough investigation. And this is about hopefully getting some focus back on getting some people in court and getting some mental health care.”

This is a developing story and will continue to be updated.