Funeral services this week for Hilton Head teen killed in Bluffton shooting
Funeral services are this week for a Hilton Head Island teen who was shot and killed two days before Christmas.
Trey Blackshear, 18, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds on Dec. 23 in a church parking lot on Buckwalter Parkway in Bluffton. He had just graduated from Hilton Head Island High School on Dec. 19 and was preparing to enroll in college in January to play soccer on scholarship, his obituary said.
A funeral will be held Tuesday at noon at Grace Community Church on Hilton Head. Visitation is Monday evening at Sauls Funeral Home in Bluffton.
“Trey was a tall, handsome figure of a young man with an infectious smile that would light up the room,” his obituary read. “He was often times a quiet and reserved person with a playful humor. He was loved by all who knew him.”
Police arrested a 16-year-old in connection to the shooting Saturday, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said. The case remains under investigation, Bluffton Police Department Capt. Joe Babkiewicz said Sunday.
Blackshear was remembered in his obituary as a good student and standout athlete who played club soccer at Tormenta FC Academy. The club posted a photo to its Facebook page of the team wearing T-shirts with Blackshear’s photo at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
“There are no words for this tragedy and our love for this young man will continue forever,” the club posted last week.
A fund established with the Ibis Foundation soccer organization will go toward an annual scholarship in Blackshear’s memory, according to the club.
Blackshear was shot multiple times while sitting in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the Lord of Life Lutheran Church parking lot along Buckwalter Parkway at about 2:20 p.m. on Dec. 23, police said. Two people ran from the scene to a nearby gas station and then a credit union, where they got in a sedan and drove away, police said.
Investigators found the car at a home at Mink Point Boulevard in northern Beaufort County. While serving warrants to search the house and vehicles on the property, officers found numerous handguns, rifles and drugs, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said.
The guns will be analyzed for possible connection to Blackshear’s death and recent shootings in northern Beaufort County, the agency said. Nobody was arrested in the search but charges are expected, police said.
