A South Carolina man allegedly shot his cousin after warning him not to eat his salt and vinegar potato chips.
Ryan Dean Langdale, 19, alerted the Colleton County Sheriff's Office to an accidental shooting at his home in South Carolina, on September 29.
The suspect told authorities that his 17-year-old cousin accidentally shot himself when he dropped his hunting rifle while cleaning it.
The cousin initially corroborated the details before he was rushed to a local hospital for a life-saving surgery.
But the two accounts didn't match up with the evidence, Major J.W. Chapman said.
'We knew from the beginning that something wasn't right,' he said to the
Post and Courier. 'The more we looked into it, the more it seemed odd.'
Chapman said the route the bullet traveled would have made it 'impossible' for the victim to shoot himself in the chest.
And a week later, when Langdale's cousin woke up at the Trident Medical Center, he informed authorities that his cousin shot him during a dispute over salt and vinegar chips.
'Do not touch my chips, or I'll shoot you,' Langdale said, according to the police report.
The man allegedly went into a back room and grabbed a rifle, pointing it at his cousin.
'The next thing he knew, the rifle went off,' the report stated.
Langdale is said to have pressured his cousin into lying about what actually happened.
He is also accused of having switched out the rifle, with another, so that he could cover up what happened.
Langdale has been charged with attempted murder, using a firearm in a violent crime and obstructing justice for shooting his 17-year-old cousin.
According to Chapman, salt and vinegar chips are a hot commodity in the area. The victim said that he never ate the chips.