Firing squad executes South Carolina serial killer who wrote message with victim’s blood

The South Carolina murderer, who taunted police with a bloody message after killing three people in a week, became the third inmate executed by firing squad in the state this year.

Stephen Corey Bryant, who once wrote “catch me if you can” on a wall using the blood of 62-year-old victim Willard “TJ” Tietjen, was executed on Friday, November 14, for the 2004 murder. He was announced dead at 18.05.

Bryant’s executioners tied him to a chair and put a hood over his head. Three volunteer corrections officers shot him simultaneously from 15 meters away.

Bryant’s lawyers had argued that Bryant should not be executed on the grounds that he was sexually abused in his childhood and suffered brain damage due to his mother’s drug and alcohol use while she was pregnant. South Carolina Supreme Court He denied these allegations He allowed the execution to proceed earlier this week.

“Mr. Bryant is the seventh man executed in South Carolina in fourteen months,” Bo King, one of his lawyers, said in a statement after the execution. “Each was forced to make a barbaric and unconscionable ‘choice’ between bloody, searing, or protracted deaths. Each execution was brutal and shameful. None made South Carolina safer or fairer.”

USA TODAY reached out to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office for a response late Friday.

Bryant became the 43rd inmate to be executed in the United States in 2025; This is the site of the most executions in a single year since 2012. He is also only one of six people executed by firing squad in modern U.S. history.

Here’s what you need to know about Bryant’s execution.

Media witnesses described the execution

Bryant was already strapped to the death row when the curtain was drawn for the three media members who served as witnesses. they later said at a press conference.

They said Bryant’s feet were chained to the chair, his arms were tied behind his back and to the chair, and his head was also tied. Bryant refused to have a final say and at that point a hood was placed over his head. They said three corrections volunteers shot him in about a minute.

A post-it-sized bullseye flew halfway across the room over Bryant’s heart after gunshots rang out and blood pooled in his chest.

One of the witnesses, Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press, said Bryant was breathing shallowly for about 30 seconds after the shots were heard, and about 40 seconds later he either spasmed or coughed once before falling completely still.

He said three of Tietjen’s family members witnessed the execution and held hands throughout the process. He said their only visible reaction to the shooting was startle.

Bryant’s last meal was spicy mixed seafood fries over rice, fried fish over rice, two eggs, three stuffed shrimp, two marshmallows, German chocolate cake and Pepsi, a corrections spokesman said.

What was Stephen Bryant found guilty of?

In October 2004, Stephen Bryant was on parole for robbery when he went on an eight-day murder spree that left three people dead and one seriously injured.

The last person killed was Willard “TJ” Tietjen, who was shot nine times in his home just east of Columbia on October 11, 2004, after letting Bryant inside.

That afternoon, Tietjen’s wife and daughter tried to call him, but he wasn’t answering. At 5.30pm, someone took his cell phone, but it wasn’t Tietjen. It was Bryant.

According to The Item newspaper published in Sumter, South Carolina, Tietjen said “TJ is dead” to Mildred Tietjen, Tietjen’s wife of 39 years, who testified during the sentencing phase of Bryant’s trial.

When Tietjen’s daughter, Kimberly Dees, called her father’s number, Bryant answered the phone again and said: “I’m having a great day, how are you?” Dees testified before saying he killed his father three hours ago.

When police arrived at Tietjen’s home, they found that he had been shot nine times and that the killer had used his blood to write a taunting message on the wall: “4 victims in 2 weeks. Catch me if you can.” Court records say Tietjen’s eyes were burned with cigarettes and candles were lit around his body.

Bryant also left a handwritten note in a Manila envelope on Tietjen’s chest: “I am the light. I am so bright. I am the sun. Yours truly, Bandit,” it read. According to The Item, a note on the table read, “Good luck finding me. LMFAO.”

Earlier that week, Tietjen had shot three more people, two fatally. Among them were friend Clifton Gainey, 36, and stranger Christopher Burgess, 35. A 56-year-old man named Clinton Brown was shot in the back and left for dead but survived.

Bryant admitted to all the crimes he committed. A judge sentenced him to life in prison for the murders of Gainey and Burgess and the death penalty for killing Tietjen.

Who was Willard “TJ” Tietjen?

Tietjen was a devoted father, grandfather and husband who retired from the Air Force after serving all over the world, from the Philippines to Germany, from Thailand to Oregon.

His daughter testified that her father took her to plays and concerts and taught her to fish, hunt, skate, appreciate nature and respect her country, The Item reported in 2008.

“We spent many happy hours together,” Dees said, adding that he taught him a very important life lesson: “The value of life. All life has a value… We are all a part of God’s creation.”

On the stand, Dees recalled how her 5-year-old son consoled her after the death of the family patriarch whom they both loved dearly.

“He told me that he would always be with me and that he would stay with me so that no one could kill me,” she said, according to The Item.

Mildred Tietjen, meanwhile, testified that she married her husband in December 1964, just three months after meeting him on a blind date while he was stationed in Iowa.

“He had such a zest for life,” she said, before remembering the last words he said to her: “I love you.”

Why was Stephen Bryant executed by firing squad?

South Carolina allowed Bryant to choose from three execution methods: firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection. If he had not chosen, the electric chair was the default method.

Firing squad is rarely used in the United States, but the practice appears to be gaining momentum as states say they are struggling to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.

Before this year, Utah was the only state to use the method, having done so only three times: in 1977, 1996 and 2010. Utah had planned to use the method on an inmate in August, but the Utah Supreme Court halted that due to concerns about dementia.

South Carolina legalized firing squads in 2021 and began using the method this year; He executed two prisoners in April and May.

A defense lawyer who witnessed the last such execution in April called it “barbaric” and “a terrible act that belongs to the darkest pages of history.” State officials argue that the method is constitutional.

In addition to Utah and South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Idaho have also legalized firing squads. Idaho approves firing squads in 2023. is set to make them the state’s default method next year.

When is the next execution?

The next execution in the United States was that of Richard Barry Randolph, in Florida, for the 1988 murder of his neighbor, Minnie Ruth McCollum, who was raped, beaten and stabbed in East Palatka, about 45 miles east of Gainesville.

If progress is made, Randolph’s execution would be the 44th execution in the United States this year; This figure is a figure not seen since 2010.

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers the death penalty for USA TODAY. Follow her on X @amandaleeusa

This article first appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina serial killer is third serial killer to die by firing squad this year