At a news conference this morning, Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela defended the city's handling of an officer-involved shooting.

His news conference was in response to one held Wednesday by Florence City Councilman Ed Robinson, who is calling for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the shooting.

Last week, Antoine James was shot three times by a Florence Police officer, who said James tried to run him over. James is out of the hospital and out on bond.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Robinson said he thought the investigation wouldn't be fair if only state police were involved.

Thursday, Wukela said it is customary for SLED to investigate officer-involved shootings, and that the system is working as it should.

Wukela said politics should not have a role. He said, "Unfortunately, yesterday Councilman Robinson, in political desperation, seized upon this incident as an opportunity to attack the police department and defame the officer involved. Disturbingly this blatant and reprehensible attack to score political points is Councilman Robinson's most recent political attack on the police department and as his political situation worsens, his desperation and his attacks increase."

NewsChannel 15 will have more on this story on CarolinaLive.com and NewsChannel 15 at 6.

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