Four people were killed and 20 wounded in a shooting at a packed bar on one of South Carolina’s inland Sea Islands early Sunday morning.
The gunfire erupted at Willie’s Bar and Grill, a well-known hotspot known for its Gullah-inspired cuisine, while hundreds of people were attending an alumni event for Beaufort County’s Battery Creek High School, The Associated Press reported.
Police have released very little information about the shooting except to say they were looking at “persons of interest.”
The Beaufort County coroner’s office identified the dead as Kashawn Glaze, 22; Chiraad Smalls, 33; Amos Gary, 54; and A’shan’tek Milledge, 22.
According to the Island Packet, Gary was working security for the alumni event. Four of the 20 people wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.
Willie Turral, the bar’s owner, said he’s stunned by what happened.
“I heard the shots, and it was scary from the inside, you know what I mean, like you could just tell the rapid succession of shots like it wasn’t a standard weapon like that,” said Turral. “You saw people giving CPR, you saw people picking people up, people crying, people care.”
“It’s hard not to have your name on the door and not feel the weight of what’s happening,” he told WCSC. “And then there’s another part that there’s maybe more that I could have humanely done, so it’s a process, and I know at the end of the day I’m focused on making things better.”
The sheriff’s office asked anyone with information to call Investigator Master Sgt. Duncan at 843-255-3418.
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[Featured image: Willie’s/Google Maps]
