By Delayna Earley, Mike McCombs and Amber Hewitt
The Island News
Federal agents, with the help of Beaufort County law enforcement, executed arrest and search warrants in Burton on Thursday, June 5, that led to the arrest of five people, three of whom are facing federal charges.
According to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), the effort was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), along with local law enforcement.
Warrants were executed at properties on Eastern Road and Logwood Path in Burton that resulted in the arrests of William Omar Heyward Jr., 44, of Burton, Ishmael Allen Rivers, 26, of Yemassee and Christoper Andrew Copeland, 26, of Beaufort, on multiple federal charges.
Katie Shannon Bradham, 37, and Lindel Hugh Bonney III, 34, both of Beaufort, were also arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants and are currently being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
Heyward, Rivers and Copeland all pled not guilty in U.S. District Court in Charleston on Thursday afternoon, according to FBI public information officer Kevin Wheeler, and waived their detention hearings without prejudice.
As of Thursday evening, all three remained in custody.
According to a federal indictment filed on May 14, 2025, but remained sealed until Thursday afternoon, Heyward, Rivers and Copeland are charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking offenses and counts related to firearms.
The indictment alleges that the three men conspired to possess controlled substances such as fentanyl, crack, marijuana and methamphetamine.
In addition, the indictment alleged that they possessed firearms to aid in furthering their drug distribution.
There are 14 individual charges listed on the indictment, but not all three men are implicated in each of the charges.
Heyward is named in all 14 of the charges.
According to the indictment, he previously was convicted in federal court of drug and firearm-related felonies for which he served more than 12 months in prison.
Rivers is named in three counts, and Copeland is named in two.
All were arrested without incident, and while all those intended to be arrested on Thursday were, according to Wheeler, the investigation is ongoing.
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.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
