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Published: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 / Updated: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 09:32 AM

No charges for Clover man who killed brother

CLOVER -- 

Charges won’t be filed against the Clover man police say shot and killed his brother late last year, prosecutors say, after evidence and interviews proved he pulled the trigger to save himself.

Deputies on Dec. 13 were sent to a mobile home at 2052 S.C. 557 near Glenn Road, where they found Shaye Fenske, 21, dead from a gunshot wound. Deputies took Fenske’s brother, Teyler, in for questioning. They released him the next day.

After meeting with the York County Sheriff’s Office and reviewing the case, Deputy 16th Circuit Solicitor Willy Thompson opted not to charge Teyler Fenske with murder.

Throughout a night of drinking, Shaye Fenske became “belligerent,” Thompson said, and started pushing his brother around. Teyler Fenske “retreated” into a room he didn’t share with his brother, but his sibling followed him.

Shaye Fenske continued pushing Teyler until he cornered him on his bed.

“He was backed into a corner,” Thompson said. “There was nowhere he could go.”

That’s when Teyler grabbed his rifle, pointed it at his brother and warned him not to take another step or he would be shot, Thompson said.

Shaye Fenske went at his brother. Teyler Fenske shot him in the chest. Then, he called the police.

He cooperated with authorities, giving them details about what happened and his conversations with his brother that corroborated what police found on the scene, Thompson said.

The state’s Protection of Persons and Privacy Act exonerates Teyler Fenske from possible murder charges connected with his brother’s death. The law states that a person has the right to defend himself – even to the point of killing – if he is attacked on his property.

“All indicators show (Teyler) would’ve suffered a severe beating” had he not shot Shaye Fenske, Thompson said.

Friends and neighbors were shocked by the shooting and said the brothers were best friends who often played with Airsoft guns in their yard when they weren’t cutting grass.

One friend, TJ Ewen, told The Herald in December that he thought the shooting had to be an accident.

“They worked together ... played together,” he said. “I don’t see (Teyler) just murdering Shaye.”

Thompson this week said Shaye Fenske had a history of assaulting his brother.

Sheriff’s reports show that three days before Christmas in 2010, Shaye Fenske held a gun at his brother and friend before all three wound up in a melee.

Suspects in another killing in Clover last year were exonerated of murder charges. Deputies in November arrested Kevin Mitchell Eades, 21, after he shot and killed 22-year-old Travis Koin before fleeing the county alongside Joseph Matthew Polk.

Eades and Polk weren’t charged with murder after prosecutors determined that Eades acted in defense of Polk and in compliance with state law. Both men face charges of felony possession of a firearm.