The shooting, which may have paralyzed the man, occurred in the same county where a white police officer was charged with murder for shooting an unarmed black man a month ago.
Deputies Keith Tyner and Richard Powell responded to the call, but Tyner mistakenly shot Heyward, who had been holding a gun, in the neck, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED.
"I should have dropped the gun, but I didn't," Heyward said after being shot, according to an audio recording obtained by the Post and Courier newspaper. "He thought I was the crook."
Sheriff Al Cannon said Tyner had made a "split second decision", the newspaper reported.
"Someone was trying to break into my house, please come," Heyward had originally told the 911 dispatcher. "It's an emergency, and they have guns." He gave a description of each gunman, said that shots had already been fired within the house, and told police that he was hiding in the laundry room in the back of his house, the Post and Courier reported.
Powell and Tyner arrived at the scene around 11 a.m. and immediately followed two black men on bicycles into the backyard of Heyward's mobile home, according to the newspaper. There they saw Heyward standing near the doorway to the laundry room with a gun, Major Eric Watson of the sheriff's department told the Post and Courier.
Deputy Keith Tyner.
Charleston County Sheriff's Office / Reuters
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