Attempted murder at a St. Helena house party leaves man hospitalized

In the early hours of Jan. 6, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Beaufort Memorial Hospital to meet with the victim of an attempted murder on St. Helena Island, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

The victim told deputies he was attending a party on St. Helena Island when he walked over to the porch next door and sat down.

The man said he was sitting on the porch alone when someone came up behind him and struck him on the side of his head with an unknown object, which he guessed was a beer bottle.

He then fell to the ground and did not know whether or not he had lost consciousness.

When he started to get up, he was suddenly shot in the left leg. The victim never saw who shot him, but he noticed the suspect was wearing jeans and was holding a silver semi-automatic pistol. The suspect never said a word, according to the report.

The victim claimed he had no recent disputes with anyone and did not think anyone would wish to harm him. Instead, he told the deputies, he believed whoever shot him must have mistaken him for someone else.

A friend drove the victim to the Beaufort Memorial emergency room, but left after dropping him off because he did not want to be involved.

The victim did not provide names of other people in attendance at the party, because he did not want them involved, the report said.

This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Attempted murder at a St. Helena house party leaves man hospitalized."