Beaufort County Sheriff P. J. Tanner says authorities have a fairly good idea who’s responsible for Sunday night’s mass shooting on St. Helena Island. But no arrests have been made as investigators wait for forensics to come back on guns, bullets and shell casings collected at the scene.
“I can’t name the person or how many, but we do have a lot of information,” said Sheriff Tanner as he addressed both the press and public for more than an hour Wednesday.
Four people were found dead outside Willie’s Bar and Grille early Sunday morning. At least 16 others were injured in the shootings.
The sheriff says as many as 700 people were celebrating a high school class homecoming late into the evening Saturday when a dispute between two, perhaps three individuals, erupted in gunfire just before closing.
“They had an ongoing feud with each other,” the sheriff said. “They resorted to pulling guns.”
The victims have been identified as 22-year-old Kashawn Glaze of Beaufort, 33-year-old Sherrod Smalls of Beaufort, 22-year-old A’shan’tek Milledge of Beaufort and 54-year-old Amos Gary of St. Helena Island.
While Sheriff Tanner released few details so as not to “impede the investigation” he did talk about what he calls “a problem in Beaufort County”, a growing number of machine guns.
“In the past year and a half, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office has made 24 arrests on possession of machine guns.”
He says only six of those arrested are still in jail. The other 18 are out on bond.
“A bond that you would laugh at,” said Sheriff Tanner. “And it’s not funny.”
The sheriff also blamed gangs and social media for fueling disputes that lead to gun violence in Beaufort County. He says SLED and the FBI are assisting in the investigation.
Several members of the St. Helena Island community also attended Wednesday’s briefing with the sheriff. The quiet island is known for its large Gullah Geechee population, the direct descendants of formerly enslaved Africans once forced to work the area’s plantations.
Some expressed concern over growing gang violence on the island while others said rapid development is taking over the area, leaving little room for places for kids to play.
The shooting happened not far from the Penn Center, one of the first schools for freed slaves in the South.
