1 dead following Bluffton shooting; victim identified

One man was killed Sunday afternoon when an argument outside a Bluffton convenience store turned deadly.



A male suspect reportedly pulled a gun and shot the victim once in the chest outside his car in the parking lot of Dollar General on May River Road about 4:45 p.m., said Bluffton Police Department spokesperson Joy Nelson.

Maj. Joseph Manning identified the victim as John Kinlaw after Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen declined to release information on the victim. His age was not available from Manning.



According to Nelson, the suspect drove away in his own car and had not been found as of about 6:30 p.m. She said there was no description available of the man or his vehicle, and investigators were not sure which way he drove.



The slaying was Beaufort County's first of 2016. Bright green wreaths still hung from each lamppost on May River Road, and Christmas lights still adorned the homes on Pin Oak Street, just past the store where half a dozen patrol cars were parked Sunday night. 



One man who lived another block down, on Able Street, heard the noise as he was building furniture in his yard. His friend thought the sound was from fireworks, similar to the bangs they'd been hearing since New Year's Eve, but Jay Douty was sure he'd heard five gunshots. And then there was the sound of an ambulance, coming closer and closer before it went silent.



He went outside and joined a crowd of about 100 people watching paramedics lift the victim onto a stretcher.



He thought the man would live, but he said paramedics' demeanor changed once the victim was on the stretcher, and they quickly resumed CPR.



"You knew right then it wasn't good," said Douty, who biked past the store again about 6 p.m. with his grandson. "When they walked way from that ambulance LifeFlight, you could just tell they were all bummed. They had their hearts in it, man, they really did."



The victim died before arriving at a hospital, Nelson said. 



Two women who said they were related to the victim waited outside the store for news. One also said her niece lives near the store and was being questioned as a witness.



The other, community activist Sharon Brown, was looking for Kinlaw's mother, her cousin.



"I've been driving around like a mad woman" looking for her, Brown said. "Because I know she's probably alone."



She briefly spoke with a woman who pulled her car up to Dollar General's parking lot, saying she was the mother of the victim's child. Brown had little news to share with her.



"It's just a travesty what's going on here, people shooting up local places," she said afterward. "A young man, dead, 'cause of an argument. It's dumb. And the new year just came up."



Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.

This story was originally published January 3, 2016 at 5:40 PM with the headline "1 dead following Bluffton shooting; victim identified."