A crowd of 700, but no witnesses? South Carolina investigation into mass shooting at bar stalls

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A sheriff said his deputies are methodically investigating a weekend mass shooting that killed four people and injured 16 more at a bar on a South Carolina island but haven’t gotten the kind of help they need from the hundreds of people partying before the shooting.

No arrests have been made yet as investigators test DNA, analyze weapons and bullets, and enhance video from the crime scene of the early Sunday shooting at Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Wednesday.

Investigators think the shooting started as a dispute between two or three people who grew up together in Beaufort County and started firing at each other.

“We had 700 people at this party. And we have yet to get a witness that can tell us who the shooters are. It’s ridiculous,” Tanner said.

The sheriff said he thinks people want to cooperate but fear retribution. He said they can report what they know anonymously through Crimestoppers.

Tanner took questions from reporters and the community Wednesday about the shooting that happened near last call for drinks at a party celebrating the 25th anniversary of the class of 2000 at Battery Creek High School in Beaufort.

Tanner called the scene horrific but not surprising considering the shots were fired indiscriminately in such a large crowd of about 300 people inside the bar itself and 400 outside.

“When that many shots are fired in a crowd with the volume of people we had — multiple people get injured. Multiple people died,” Tanner said at Wednesday’s briefing.

Building a case based on evidence as opposed to eyewitnesses takes time, Tanner said.

Shell casing and bullets, some taken from inside the victims, were being sent to state agents on Wednesday. The FBI was trying to enhance and analyze video from inside and outside the bar. And Beaufort County deputies were testing DNA, Tanner said.

The goal is to make sure whatever charges are filed stick, the sheriff said.

“What I’m not going to do is victimize these families a second time,” Tanner said.

Tanner refused to say exactly how many people may have fired or give any identifying information about possible suspects.

The sheriff also clarified that 16 people were wounded in the shooting. Initial reports said at least 20 were hurt by gunfire.

Kashawn Glaze, 22; Chiraad Smalls, 33; Amos Gary, 54; and A’shan’tek Milledge, 22, were killed in the shooting.

Willie’s Bar serves Gullah-inspired cuisine and describes itself on its website as “not just a restaurant but a community pillar committed to giving back, especially to our youth.”

An estimated 5,000 or more Gullah people living on St. Helena Island trace their ancestry back to enslaved West Africans who once worked rice plantations in the area before being eventually freed by the Civil War.