Alex Murdaugh 911 calls released: Lawyer pleads for help as witness says scene 'looks like a setup'

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Alex Murdaugh's attorney admits disgraced lawyer knows he's going to jail

Criminal defense attorney Brian Claypool reacts to the latest development in the Murdaugh family murder mystery saga

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) released 911 calls Friday revealing the moment prominent lawyer Alex Murdaugh told dispatchers he was "having trouble seeing" and "bleeding a lot" following a botched suicide plot on Sept. 4 — and of a witness who described the scene as looking like a "setup." 

Murdaugh has confessed to SLED that he hired his former client and alleged longtime drug dealer, Curtis Eddie Smith, to shoot him so his son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Murdaugh’s wife Maggie and his other son, Paul, were killed in a June 7 double murder that remains unsolved. 

"I got a flat tire and I stopped, and somebody stopped to help me and when I turned my back, they tried to shoot me," Murdaugh is heard telling a 911 dispatcher in an audio recording. 

Curtis Eddie Smith (left) is accused of shooting Alex Murdaugh (right) in an alleged botched suicide plot.  (Colleton County Sheriffs Office / Hampton County Detention Center)

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"Oh OK, were you shot?" the dispatcher says, to which Murdaugh replies, "Yes, but I mean I’m OK." 

When asked if he needed medical attention, Murdaugh says, "Well, I mean yes – I can’t drive, I’m having trouble seeing and I’m bleeding a lot." 

Then, when the dispatcher asks what part of the body Murdaugh was struck, the 53-year-old said, "Uh, I’m not sure, somewhere on my head." 

Murdaugh had described the shooter as a "White fella ... a fair amount younger than me, [with] really, really short hair." 

Alex Murdaugh walks into his bond hearing Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, in Varnville, S.C. Murdaugh surrendered to face insurance fraud and other charges after state police said he arranged to have himself shot in the head so that his son would get a $10 million life insurance payout.  (AP)

In a Hampton County Sheriff’s Office incident report SLED also released Friday, a sergeant wrote that "deputies were dispatched to Old Salkehatchie Highway in the Varnville area of Hampton County in reference to a shooting incident. 

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"While enroute Deputies learned the victim, later identified as Alex Murdaugh, had been shot in the head, and was being flown out from a landing zone on Charleston Highway to the hospital," the report read. 

But a witness who called 911 on the night of the botched plot also told dispatchers that the scene looked like a "setup."

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"We are on Salkehatchie Road and there is a man on the side of the road with blood all over him and he is waving his hands," the caller is heard saying in an audio clip released Friday. 

"He is just laying there waving his hands around?" the dispatcher then asks. 

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"He looks fine, but it kind of looks like a setup," the caller responded. "So we didn’t stop." 

"Oh, I don’t blame you," the dispatcher said. 

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.