More details have surfaced on the shooting of a Lexington County deputy earlier this month. Lead Investigator Major John Allard confirmed that the shooting did involve gang members. An anti-illegal immigration group known as ALIPAC circulated an email to the media, falsely claiming the officer was targeted by a 15-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico as an initiation to a gang. The 15-year-old is illegal and he did shoot at the officer but not as part of an initiation. The three individuals were breaking into cars as part of the initiation when the officer responded to the call. The 15-year-old shot at Deputy Ted Xanthakis as he(the teen) tried to escape. The officer was not hurt. Allard explains what happened. “They were breaking into motor vehicles as part of a gang initiation. A citizen saw them breaking into the vehicle (and) contacted our department.
“We had deputies respond. Amongst them was Deputy Xanthakis and he encountered one of them, a 15-year-old boy, and during that encounter the 15-year-old boy fired a shot gun blast at the officer’s car.”
Allard wants to set the record straight about the incorrect email reaching media outlets across the nation. “It was partially accurate in that it was a gang initiation,” said Allard. “But the gang initiation had nothing to do with the shooting at the law enforcement officer. The shooting happened when he (Xanthakis) interrupted the gang initiation of breaking into motor vehicles.”
The gang is a Mexican Gang founded in Southern California known as Surenos 13 or Sur 13, for short. “Surenos” means they are descendants of residents of Southern Mexico and 13 stands for the 13th letter in the alphabet, the ‘M’, which represents Mexicans. Allard says Sur 13 is a growing presence in Lexington County.