The Bluffton teen injured in Friday’s shooting needs multiple surgeries. How to help
The 16-year-old Bluffton High School sophomore injured in Friday night’s shooting was upgraded from “critical” to “stable” condition Tuesday morning — but there’s still a long road ahead of him.
Edwin “EJ” Graham Jr. suffered two gunshot wounds in the Friday shooting that killed his cousin, 18-year-old Dwon “DJ” Fields Jr., community fundraiser Catherine Donaldson said.
He is being treated at Savannah Memorial Intensive Care Unit and remains under heavy sedation. A third victim, 18-year-old Kylan Simmons, was injured in the shooting but has been released from the hospital.
Jackie Brown, a cousin of Graham’s mother and Fields’ father, said Wednesday morning that Graham is currently being weaned off of a ventilator and that the next 24 hours are “really critical.” The family is asking for continued prayers.
“It’s a lot to have to pray for one family member and bury another one,” Brown said. “It’s a lot.”
Donaldson, a Bluffton-based Realtor, said she was contacted after the shooting by Bluffton Town councilwoman Bridgette Frazier to set up a GoFundMe for Graham’s family.
The “Edwin Graham Jr. (EJ) recovery fund” has raised more than $15,000 in less than 24 hours for Graham, who was a center/power forward for the Bobcats’ varsity basketball team but now “faces multiple and extensive surgeries in the days and weeks to come,” according to the fundraiser.
Donations are being sent straight to Graham’s mother’s bank account, Donaldson said.
“I just think it’s going to be a really long haul,” Donaldson said. “I mean, he was shot twice, you know? Luckily, he’s 16. He’s got youth on his side.”
Donaldson has overseen several community fundraising efforts in the past, including a push to get more than 800 Kindle Fire tablets to Beaufort County elementary students during the COVID-19 school shutdown.
She said the donations to Graham have been different from the ones she collected for the tablet program — for one, the $100,000 goal for Graham is much higher.
For another, Donaldson said a lot of the donations are coming from Graham’s classmates.
“I cannot say how may high school kids (donated) $5, $7, $10,” she said. “So many donations are whatever the kids can afford. ... Kids who don’t really have $20 necessarily all the time.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 3:44 PM.