By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Eighteen-year-old Benjamin Shamar Seabrook IV, a resident of St. Helena Island, is back behind bars after his bond was revoked in the shooting death of a 6-year-old boy in March.
Seabrook had his bond revoked during a bond hearing on Thursday, April 18, before Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen at Beaufort County Courthouse.
He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, criminal conspiracy, obstruction of justice, tampering with physical evidence and filing a false police report of a felony violation in the alleged accidental shooting of 6-year-old Frankie Washington at Cross Creek Apartments in Beaufort.
Washington initially survived the shooting but died from his injuries the following day at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston.
Seabrook allegedly stored a pistol under Washington’s pillow.
The gun went off and struck the 6-year-old in the head.
The weapon was a switch-modified pistol, according to prosecutor Mary Jones with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, which is a type of gun that uses a small switch to change the weapon from a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic gun.
Seabrook and his half-sister Desarai Bennett, 22, allegedly hid the handgun and then came up with a story claiming that a stray bullet from outside of the apartment struck the boy, according to Jones.
She also said that the two reportedly poked a hole in the apartment’s porch screen to make it look like a bullet hole before reporting to the Beaufort Police Department.
Bennett is facing charges for criminal conspiracy, filing a false police report and accessory after the fact to a felony.
She is currently out on a personal recognizance bond.
Seabrook also faces unrelated charges for carjacking, illegally possessing a firearm and felony assault, according to public judicial records.
Jones successfully argued that Seabrook’s bond needed to be revoked because he committed a violent crime while out on bond for a previous violent crime.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She 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.
