By Tony Kukulich
One teen is dead and another man was injured in a pair of shootings that occurred Friday afternoon in northern Beaufort County.
A Seabrook man interrupted a burglary of his home on Vidalia Road in Seabrook around 2:30 p.m. The man confronted two subjects in his home. One of those subjects – identified by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office as 17-year-old David Singleton of Seabrook – pulled a gun and fired at the homeowner but instead shot and killed the other alleged accomplice in the burglary.
The shooting victim was only identified as a 17-year-old male Burton resident.
The homeowner fled after the shots were fired and was not injured.
Beaufort County Emergency Medical Service personnel responded to the scene with Sheriff’s Office deputies. The shooting victim was found unresponsive and declared dead on the scene.
Singleton was not on the scene when deputies arrived but was a short distance away in his residence on Porches Hill Road. He refused to surrender to law enforcement for more than an hour. He then exited the residence and was taken into custody without further incident.
Singleton was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center and charged with burglary in the first degree related to the Vidalia Road incident. Potential charges in the shooting death of the juvenile are being evaluated.
The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office will schedule a forensic autopsy to be conducted at the Medical University of South Carolina to confirm the juvenile subject’s cause of death.
In the other incident, an adult male suffering from a single gunshot was found lying in Possum Hill Road in Burton by Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies at approximately 2 p.m. Deputies were responding to a report of a gunshot victim in the area.
Authorities believe the subjects fired at the victim from a moving car and then fled the scene. There is no description of the vehicle believed to have been involved in the shooting.
The victim was transported to Beaufort Memorial Hospital for treatment of his wounds. His current condition is unknown, and his identity has not been released.
Investigations into the incidents are ongoing.
Anyone who has information on either of these shootings is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office Dispatch at 843-524-2777 or Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111, if wishing to remain anonymous and for possible reward.
Tony Kukulich is a recent transplant to the Lowcountry. A native of Wilmington, Del., he comes to The Island News from the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent seven years as a reporter and photographer for several publications. He can be reached at tony.theislandnews@gmail.com.
