Bluffton unites at funeral to remember teen killed in shooting
In Bluffton High School’s entrepreneurship class last semester, Dwon “DJ” Fields Jr. made a promise to his teacher, Michele Eastham.
If she ever started a food truck business, he would join her team.
Eastham had assigned her students to create their own business plans, and Fields wanted his teacher to bring her passion for baking to a reality.
Fields, 18 and a star on BHS’s football team, was shot and killed March 5 while driving in Bluffton with two friends. At his funeral Sunday at Bluffton High School’s Bobcat Stadium, Eastham flipped the script, making a promise to her student.
If she ever starts a food truck business, “it will be with DJ’s ideas and his wings behind me.”
At the public viewing, mourners streamed into Bobcat Stadium by the hundreds to pay their respects to Fields and his family. Many wore black and green, the Bobcats’ colors, and some wore his jersey number, 55. For more than an hour, Fields’ classmates, family, teachers and teammates cried, hugged and shared memories on his home field.
Michaela Yates taught Fields when he was in fifth and sixth grade at Bluffton Elementary School. She said he was always the first to welcome new students. “You could always trust him,” she told the Island Packet. “He will be greatly missed.”
Christine Brown, principal at Bluffton Elementary, agreed. “He left an impression. In a good way.”
About 500 students, teammates, teachers, family members and Bluffton community members gathered at the funeral to remember Fields, whose death sent a shock wave through the small town.
“I don’t babysit anyone’s kid. But DJ was mine,” said his aunt, Cheryl Richardson-Arnold, in her remarks.
Richardson-Arnold had seen her nephew grow up. Learn to walk. Get a job. Find his passions. She said he wanted to be a welder and was looking at Greenville Technical College’s program.
At the time of his death, Fields was a beloved member of the staff at Kilwins ice cream shop in Bluffton. He rooted for the Philadelphia Eagles, Georgia Bulldogs and Golden State Warriors.
Born Sept. 15, 2002, at Hilton Head Hospital, Fields was the only child of Kema Bryant and Dwon Fields Sr.
Fields and two classmates were all shot on Friday night, March 5. Police say someone fired at their car from another vehicle, sending the car veering off the road at Bluffton and Hampton parkways. Fields’ cousin, Edwin “EJ” Graham, 16, was hospitalized with serious injuries and placed on a ventilator for several days before being weaned off, according to his GoFundMe account. Another victim, 18-year-old Kylan Simmons, was injured but has been released from the hospital.
Bluffton Police have charged four people in the shooting. Tyleic Channeyfield, 18, of Ridgeland and Jimmie Green, 19, of Hardeeville, are charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime. Their bonds have not been set.
Jayden and Shayniah Void, 18-year-old siblings and former May River High School students, are each charged with one count of accessory to murder after the fact. Their bonds have been set at $1 million each.
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 4:48 PM.
