Chris Corley, who represents Graniteville in Aiken County in the South Carolina House of Representatives, was arrested Tuesday by the Aiken Sheriff’s office for alleged domestic violence.
The Aiken Standard reports that Corley was charged with “first-degree domestic violence and pointing and presenting firearms at a person” after an unnamed woman claimed he attacked her in her Graniteville home, in front of her children:
Warrants state Corley, in the presence of an 8-year-old child, did “cause physical harm and injury” to the victim, by “striking her about the head and face with a closed fist and further did, after threatening to kill the victim, point a Smith & Wesson ... handgun at the victim causing her to fear for her life.”
Deputies responded on Monday to a home on the 100 block of Sugar Hill Drive in Graniteville, where a woman said Corley hit her in the face with his fist and said he was going to kill her while children were in the home, police reported.
The woman told deputies Corley was “caught cheating.”
The police told the Standard that Corley’s attack ended when he noticed the children screaming and the blood coming from the woman’s head. That’s when he reportedly got his gun from the car, threatened to kill himself, then locked himself in the bedroom. The woman took the opportunity to run across the street with her kids to a relative’s house.
Corley is still in the Aiken County jail and will face a bond hearing on Tuesday afternoon. State Sen. Tom Young, who serves as chair of the Aiken County Legislative Delegation told reporters he was praying for Corley and his family, calling the incident “a very unfortunate situation.”