St. Helena man has been ‘person of interest’ since Oct. 12 shooting at Willie’s Bar and Grill that killed 4, wounded 15 more
By Mike McCombs, The Island News
Anferny Devon “Ant” Freeman, 27, of St. Helena Island, was charged with four counts of murder on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in connection with the mass shooting early Sunday morning, Oct. 12, 2025, at Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island.
The charges were announced by Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner at a Friday, Nov. 14 press conference at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters in the old federal courthouse on Bay Street.
“[Freeman] was served [warrants for] four counts of murder; aggravated breach of peace, one count; and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime,” Tanner said. “Those charges were made yesterday afternoon.”
A hearing was held earlier Friday, where bond was deferred to a circuit judge at a later, as of yet, undetermined date.
Freeman is charged with the murder of 54-year-old Amos Gary of St. Helena Island, hired as a private security guard for the events that night at Willie’s Bar and Grill; Kashawn Glaze, a 22-year-old man from Beaufort; Chiraad Smalls, a 33-year-old man from Beaufort; and A’shan’tek Milledge, a 22-year-old woman from Burton. The four were pronounced dead on the scene at 7 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at 12:49 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 12, of gunshot wounds.
A total of 19 people suffered gunshot wounds in the Oct. 12 incident – a number corrected by Tanner. In his initial press conference on Wednesday, Oct. 15, Tanner said there were 20 wounded. In addition to the four deceased, there were 15 others wounded, including four critically at the time.
Sheriff Tanner reiterated there are still charges forthcoming in the cases of the surviving victims. He reiterated, however, that he had no information of a timetable regarding when those charges might be made.
“The other 15 victims are not being forgotten,” Tanner said. “We’re just at that stage in the investigation where we’re comfortable making these charges, and we’ll continue looking at the other charges, and I expect these other charges to be made. I just don’t have a window of time to tell you when that is, and I expect other people to be held accountable for this as well.”
Freeman’s arrest
At the time of the Oct. 12 shooting in the parking lot of a crowded Willie’s Bar and Grill – Tanner on Friday revised the crowd size estimate down to 350 from upward of 600 — Freeman was still facing charges from a 2023 Beaufort County incident that saw him charged with failure to stop for a blue light, 1st offense, and illegal carrying of a pistol. The pistol charge was eventually dropped.
He was also under investigation for a September 2024 incident. According to Tanner, the investigators with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) were just concluding that investigation at the time of the St. Helena shooting.
A recording of a phone call from early Oct. 12 in possession of The Island News, identified by a member of the BCSO as a dispatch call, names Freeman as a “possible suspect or shooter,” as identified by a third party.
A source with knowledge of that night’s events said Freeman was immediately a “suspect” and told The Island News that Freeman himself was wounded that night at Willie’s Bar & Grill and sought treatment at Coastal Carolina Hospital (CCH) in Hardeeville in Jasper County.
Tanner confirmed that at Friday’s media conference.
According to Tanner, Freeman left Willie’s Bar and Grill after the shooting. Given a ride by a friend, Freeman was later dropped off and then picked up by his girlfriend and given a ride to CCH. “Freeman suffered a through-and-through gunshot wound to the stomach,” Tanner told the media. “He was later transferred from Coastal Carolina to [a hospital in] Savannah, and he was later released from a hospital in Savannah, and then returned to Beaufort County. That’s as much as I can tell you.”
According to Tanner, “a through-and-through wound means [the bullet] enters at one section of the stomach and exits at another location. He was extremely lucky [he] didn’t have any organ damage.”
Freeman was arrested on Monday, Oct. 13, and charged with breach of peace, aggravated in nature; and possession of a machine gun in the 2024 case.
At the time, BCSO spokesperson Lt. Daniel Allen emphasized that these charges were not related to the Oct. 12 shooting, and would not confirm or deny that Freeman was a person of interest in the Willie’s shooting, but sources close to law enforcement told The Island News that authorities knew he was tied to the case because “several people identified Freeman that night at the scene.”
Freeman bonded out on Tuesday, Oct. 14 and was free for a week until his bond from the 2023 charge of failure to stop for a blue light was revoked and he was rearrested on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 21, his 27th birthday. He remains in the Beaufort County Detention Center where he was served warrants for his arrest for four counts of murder.
Tanner was asked whether forensics had connected a gun in Freeman’s possession with the four deceased victims. Tanner normally shy about talking about evidence, did not mince words.
“The forensics does show that, yes,” he said. “That’s why he’s charged with four counts of murder. That would be the relationship.”
He reiterated, however, that it wasn’t the only evidence against Freeman.
“There’s a lot of connectivity, and not only through witness accounts and witness information, but also through evidence,” Tanner said. “So we’re very, very comfortable with those charges on [Freeman].”
About the shooting
Since his initial media conference, Tanner had indicated that the BCSO believed there to be multiple shooters in the Oct. 12 incident. He confirmed that belief on Friday.
“We know that we have three shooters [in this] incident, and we’ve recovered evidence that allows us to say that we have three people that discharged weapons at that scene,” he said. “One of those people that discharged a weapon at that scene is deceased. And that would be a victim – [Kashawn] Glaze. And the other one that I’m willing to talk about that discharged a weapon there would be Anferny Freeman. But I’m not gonna go in any more detail about the third shooter.”
It is a disagreement between Glaze and Freeman that Tanner said is believed to have sparked the shootings.
“We know that the onset of the shooting was a disagreement … between Freeman and Glaze,” Tanner said. “So we know that ignited the incident, even though there was bad blood before this particular night, that’s what kickstarted the gunfire.”
Tanner said the investigation had revealed that there had been “differences” between Glaze and Freeman festering over the course of the past year.
And Tanner indicated that investigators know there was even “a brief encounter between victim Glaze and defendant [Freeman] prior to the shooting at the [shooting] location.
“You know, knowing that there’s been bad blood between them for over a period of time, and it’s kind of on-and-off, if you will, … we do know that prior to the shooting on October 12, there was a brief encounter between the two that was not very friendly,” he said. “And then from there, it went to drawing weapons and shooting. So that kind of was the onset of the gunfire.”
Other arrests
Tanner said at least a dozen search warrants had been executed in relation to this case in the month since the shooting, including one that resulted in the recovery of two guns, drugs and drug paraphernalia. One of the guns was equipped with a “switch,” an illegal attachment that converts a handgun from semi-automatic to fully automatic, like a machine gun.
Several arrests were made as a result of this warrant, including two unrelated to the Oct. 12 shooting.
George Anthony Williams, 23, of Beaufort, and Janasia Wing, a 21-year-old woman from Beaufort, were arrested and charged with possession of a machine gun and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. They were both released on bond.
In addition, Tanner said the BCSO was able to arrest an individual with an outstanding warrant. Later, Tanner said his bond was revoked for a prior machine gun case unrelated to the Oct. 12 shooting.
On Monday night, Oct. 13, Marktazius Jovan “MJ” Smalls, 23, of St. Helena Island, was arrested by the BCSO in a raid for possession of narcotics; breach of peace, aggravated; and possession of a machine gun.
At the time, Lt. Allen emphasized that the charges against Smalls were unrelated to the Oct. 12 shooting at Willie’s. But a law enforcement source confirmed to The Island News that Smalls, too, is a person of interest in the case.
According to court records, Smalls is now facing a second possession of a machine gun charge, and there was a bond revocation motion filed in his case. He remains incarcerated at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
An ongoing investigation
Sheriff Tanner reiterated that despite charges being filed in the four murders, the investigation into the shooting is “still a very active, ongoing investigation.”
Tanner made an effort to thank all the agencies that assisted in any way with the investigation, but especially the Northern Investigative Branch of the BCSO.
“They have done an outstanding job over the past four weeks of this investigation,” Tanner said. “This investigation has been a priority to most of our northern investigators, even though there are other cases that that are being investigated every day. But this has consumed most of their time, and they have done an outstanding job. A lot of hours, a lot of attention, a lot of focus to detail. They’ve done great.”
The Sheriff also acknowledged the assistance of the Forensic Services Lab, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, the City of Beaufort Police Department, Beaufort Memorial Hospital, the Town of Port Royal Police Department, the Hardeeville Police Department, Coastal Carolina Hospital, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), ATF, SLED’s forensic services, the Lady’s Island Fire Department, Beaufort County EMS, the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office out of Charleston.
He also acknowledged the help of those who spoke up about what they knew about the shooting.
“We have interviewed a lot of people. Some are reluctant to be interviewed and really don’t want to be involved. But we’ve also interviewed a lot of independent witnesses that are a big part of this investigation, and they’re a large part of the reason we were able to [file charges],” Tanner said. “So you take the eyewitness information along with the evidence that was collected and processed. It makes the case very, very strong.”
Tanner revisited a question asked of him during his initial press conference.
“Is Beaufort County a safe county? Absolutely. That’s a sound bite for you. Beaufort County is a safe county, is a safe community,” Tanner said. “We’re well below the national average in crime. But the community is not totally safe unless the community stands up and says, ‘I don’t want crime at my doorstep. I don’t want crime in my community.’ And I tell people all the time, and everywhere I go, you’ll have as much crime in your community as you allow. The more you allow, the more crime you’ll have. But Beaufort County is a safe county. St. Helena is a safe community.”
Amber Hewitt contributed to this story.
Mike McCombs is the editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
