By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
Okay, it appears Beaufort has another “first,” a “mass murder” which occurred early Sunday morning at a local bar. According to federal legal definitions, murders are considered “mass” when more than three individuals lose their lives in a single incident in a single location.
Certainly nothing to be proud of.
Details of the shooting are reported elsewhere in this edition of The Island News but the community response was almost immediate and universal: What the heck?
The early Sunday morning shooting at Willie’s Bar and Grill, formerly known as the Island Club, on St. Helena Island, located on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive about a mile west of Penn Center, is just the latest act of violence to shock the community. The internet and media outlets were kept busy the week before with when a Beaufort County deputy eventually lost his job after pulling his service gun on two teenagers and throwing them to the ground as they walked through his Hilton Head Island neighborhood.
The week before that, on Sept. 29, Beaufort resident, Christopher Jamal Burton, 28, was shot to death at the Cross Creek Plaza on Robert Smalls Parkway. No arrests have been made in that shooting.
It was third time in one week that Beaufort police had responded to shots fired in the same area. And another “shots fired” incident, in which a 52-year-old man and his 20-year-old son were arrested, was reported in the same area as a “road rage” incident.
On Sept. 7, a 20-year-old St. Helena man, James Jenkins, was shot in an apartment complex not far from Cross Creek Plaza. No arrests have been made in his death.
Not to belittle our own tragedy but down in Mississippi, two different shootings ended up with eight total deaths, and these happened at high school homecoming events.
Saturday night’s shooting on St. Helena coincided with a Battery Creek High School reunion event. Reunions are supposed to be fun, aren’t they, unless they bring up bad memories.
All these shootings will definitely create bad memories for those folks in attendance out there at Willie’s.
Law enforcement officials are well aware of the presence of so many guns. Following the Sept. 29 shootings, for example, the Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of three individuals on gun charges along with five other individuals on drug possession and trafficking charges.
It’s the arrests (or lack thereof), especially when witnesses decline to testify, and then the long time it takes for the prosecution to put a case together that make the judicial system look ineffective.
Remember, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department has an anonymous tip line, 844-847-7238.
Beaufort County taking a look at dock regulations
A heads up to boat owners, boat users or anyone who wants to visit a Beaufort County public boat landing.
The County Council is in the process of updating the waterways ordinance and there might be some objections from the water-loving public. will have a discussion on the proposals at the Oct. 20 meeting.
The county’s Public Facilities committee will have a meeting at 4 p.m., on Monday, Oct. 20, to discuss the proposals which regulating operations at the 21 public boat landings. The proposed changes should be of particular interest to people who are running businesses at a public landing, like renting jet-skies at the boat landings or picking up paying passengers for boat rides or fishing trips. While commercial fishermen are exempted from the regulations, barge operators, who use the landings to transport materials, are not.
According to the county’s legal staff who has been working on the revisions for the past year, some of the complaints leading to the changes were coming from marina representatives who feel use of the public space to conduct business infringed on their business opportunities. Staff research reported 17 different businesses using a public boat landing for their operations.
For more detailed information about the ordinance draft, see Chapter_102_WATERWAYS Ordinance amendments rev mmbh (1).pdf
The Town of Bluffton, which has its own public boat landing, has already had one of two public readings on a similar ordinance to regulate activities within its boundaries.
Port Royal sidewalks, walking trail keep growing
PORT ROYAL — And some good news from the town of Port Royal
After nine years-plus in the planning and negotiating stages, a 400-feet length of sidewalk along Ribaut Road bordering the Naval Hospital is nearing completion.
The project required cooperation with the federal authorities who owned the property but it was with the will and determination of Town Manager Van Willis that pedestrians will soon be able to walk safely along the busy thoroughfare.
Progress is also being made on extension of the Spanish Moss Trail from Ribaut Road along the former railroad right-of-way to Appleton Road on the east side of Ribaut Road. The current work includes placement of a pedestrian activated traffic signal to allow the safe crossing of Ribaut Road.
Further plans call for the 10-mile trail to be extended through the Safe Harbor property down to The Sands recreational area.
Now if the international marina company, which was purchased in May by asset manager Blackstone Infrastructure, would just come on back into the Town Council and present their latest development plan, there would be even more cause for rejoicing.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. The Rowland, N.C. native’s goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
