Alex Murdaugh's Wound To The Head Was Not 'Self-Inflicted,' Spokesperson Says

A gunshot wound to the head suffered by a member of a prominent South Carolina legal family earlier this month wasn't "self-inflicted," according to a spokesman for the attorney who divulged new details about the incident.

Amanda Loveday, a spokesperson for Alex Murdaugh, told People that Murdaugh—whose wife and son were gunned down at the family’s home in June in a still unsolved case—had pulled his car over along the side of the road on Sept. 4 after noticing that the low tire indicator light had come on.

“A male driver in a blue pick-up asked him if he had car troubles, as soon as Alex replied, he was shot,” she said.

According to Loveday, Murdaugh “had an entry and exit wound, his skull was fractured and it was not a self-inflicted bullet wound.”

Loveday made the comments not long after an initial report released Thursday by the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office said Murdaugh had no “visible injury” after the shooting; however, later that same day the sheriff’s office released a revised report that said there had been “major injury.” This time the box next to visible injury had been checked.

Hampton County Sheriff T.C. Smalls told The Island Packet that the initial report had likely been a clerical error.

“He did have an injury,” Smalls said.

The revised report refers to the incident as an “attempted murder.”

Murdaugh’s attorney, Jim Griffin, told The Island Packet that after the shooting, Murdaugh, 53, had been airlifted to a Savannah area hospital. Two Good Samaritans reportedly found him at the scene and were driving him to the hospital when they met an ambulance along the way. Emergency responders requested he be airlifted to the hospital.

Griffin said Murdaugh has been working with a sketch artist to create an image of the suspect and denied rumors that it had been a self-inflicted injury.

“I don’t think you choose to have a flat tire or stage a flat tire to commit suicide. That makes no sense,” he told the outlet. “There are many things (being reported) that are incongruent.”

According to Griffin, investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) were unable to find a gun near the car or the surrounding area and one investigator told him that it appeared one of the vehicle’s tires had been slashed.

SLED spokesperson Tommy Crosby declined to comment on the investigation.

Two days after the shooting, Murdaugh announced that he was going into drug rehab.

"The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life," he said in the statement, obtained by The Island Packet. "I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret. I'm resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated by these murders.”

The resignation coincided with the discovery that Murdaugh was under investigation for misappropriating funds at his law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick, a firm started by his great-grandfather in 1910.

In a statement to The New York Times, the law firm said it had hired a forensic accountant to investigate the allegations.

Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and son, Paul, 22, were killed on the family’s Colleton County estate on June 7.

Murdaugh placed a frantic call to 911 after discovering the bodies, in a case that remains under investigation by SLED.  

“I need the police and an ambulance immediately,” he said in the call, according to the news outlet. “My wife and child have been shot badly.”

At the time of his death, Paul had been awaiting trial on felony charges of boating while intoxicated for a 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

You can watch "Alex Mudaugh. Death. Deception. Power." here or on Peacock starting January 6.