Incident happened over weekend on Hilton Head Island
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
On Monday, Sept. 29, many in Beaufort, S.C. woke to a now-viral video being shared across social media that, for many in the comments, caused shock and anger.
The video showed a man, who we now know is an off-duty deputy with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), approaching several young teenage boys while pointing his gun at them and screaming for them to get on the ground.
He is dressed in civilian clothing, shorts and a dark shirt with dark slip-on shoes, his BCSO tactical vest, and has his weapon holster on his hip.
When they do not immediately comply, he proceeds to grab one of the boys by the shirt and tries to kick his legs out from under him, as the boy and his friends scream in fear and yell for someone to help them and to call the police.
At one point, one of the boys can be seen attempting to push the deputy while the deputy holds his friend, at which point the deputy draws his weapon again, points it at the boys and says, “I will shoot you.”
The video ends with more screaming from the boys as they yell for their moms, for help and a question that was asked several times during the video but never answered, “What the [expletive] did we do?”
The official response
According to a press release put out by the spokesperson for BCSO, the off-duty deputy involved in the incident on Sunday, Sept. 28, in the area of Squiresgate Road on Hilton Head Island was suspended without pay and relieved of his credentials, badge, Sheriff’s Office-issued weapons and equipment by a Command Staff member who had responded to the scene.
BCSO responded to the scene at approximately 6:47 p.m., due to calls of a disturbance in the community, according to the release.
The officer is a resident of the neighborhood.
His name and identity has not officially been released by the Sheriff’s Office, but they said they will release it at a future point in time.
“Deputies are held to a higher standard, as they must abide by all BCSO policies and procedures, both on and off duty,” the release states. “The Internal Affairs investigation is an administrative investigation that could take some time to complete, with multiple people needing to be interviewed.”
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) will investigate this incident for any possible criminal violations.
The internal administrative investigation being conducted by BCSO and the criminal investigation being conducted by SLED will be conducted as a parallel investigation per the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), according to the release from BCSO.
Results of the SLED criminal investigation will then be forwarded to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office for review, where the Regional Public Integrity Unit (PIU) will decide if criminal charges are to be brought against the deputy, according to a press release put out by Jeff Kidd, Administrative Chief of Staff with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
The PIU examines allegations of public corruption and incidents involving law enforcement officers and consists of senior-level attorneys and investigators from both the 14th Circuit and 1st Circuit Solicitors’ offices.
Law enforcement is asking the community to submit any information, video, audio or photographs that they have to the Internal Affairs Investigator assigned to this case, Lt. Draisen at office number 843-255-3404 or email adraisen@bcgov.net.
What happened off camera?
On Sunday afternoon, three 14-year-old boys decided to go walking in the general area around where a few of them live.
“You know, there’s nothing to really do on Hilton Head for teens besides go to the beach, and if they don’t have a car, they’re not going to the beach, so what do they do for fun, they walk,” said Alexis Briana, aunt to one of the three boys. “So, these kids were just taking a walk around the neighborhood as they always do.”
Alexis said that as they were walking, a man saw them walking and approached them on an ATV with what appeared to be an open container of alcohol with him.
Her nephew told her that at first the man seemed friendly and started asking them questions about how they were and what they were up to, to which the boys allegedly responded that they were just walking through the neighborhood.
It was then that her nephew told her that the questions became more personal as he started to ask where the boys live, and the boys were uncomfortable answering him and told him they were not going to answer him.
At this point, according to her nephew, the man on the ATV went from friendly to interrogative, which made the boys even more uncomfortable, so they told him to leave them alone and told him to get away from them as they tried to walk away. But he continued to follow them for a time before he left and returned with the off-duty deputy, who, at that point, was not wearing his tactical vest.
The deputy allegedly began questioning the boys, as well, and told them to leave and get out of the neighborhood, to which they responded that they were just walking.
“They’re attempting as children to de-escalate the situation by walking away from an adult that is harassing them,” Alexis said.
The off-duty deputy then left in his truck to put on his vest, after which he returned with his firearm pulled and aimed at the kids, which is the point from which the viral video began.
At some point, one of the boys called his brother, who came out of his home and is the one recording the video.
In addition to the off-duty deputy seen in the video, Alexis’ nephew said he was restrained and held at gunpoint by a civilian.
“My nephew was saying that the civilian had his knee in his back and the gun pointed at his head,” Alexis said. “You’d have to listen really closely to that video to hear him yelling in the background, of course, behind all the other children screaming.”
Alexis said her nephew tried to run but was tripped by someone before the civilian held him at gunpoint.
With all of the commotion, a lot of people came out of their homes, and one of the men at the scene said he thought he saw a gun, which is why the off-duty deputy was checking the black bookbag, according to Alexis. But the boys did not have a gun or any other type of weapon.
Allegedly, when the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene, they “greeted the civilians and didn’t question the civilian that had the gun drawn” at Alexis’s nephew.
The Island News reached out to the spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office with questions regarding the civilians who allegedly detained and held weapons on the minors, but did not receive a response.
“We see in the news so often it has become a normality here in the United States, but when it’s in your front yard – when it’s in your living room – it’s devastating,” Alexis said. “I hate to be the what-if person, who is like, this could’ve gone completely different. People could have lost their children yesterday, but the children did lose their innocence yesterday.”
As the boys are minors, The Island News will not be naming them.
Additionally, Alexis Briana has asked to not be identified by her surname and that request is being honored.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
