Two suspects arrested in connection with fatal Lady’s Island shooting. What we know
A man and a woman have been arrested connection with a fatal shooting on Lady’s Island last weekend.
Brittany Tiarra Smalls and William Johnson III are in custody on suspicion of murder, possession of a firearm in a violent crime and obstruction of justice/arrest, Major Bob Bromage of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said.
Smalls was arrested at a St. Helena Island residence Saturday morning. She’s being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center. Johnson fled to Augusta following the shooting, Bromage said, and deputies with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia arrested him Thursday. Johnson is awaiting extradition to Beaufort County.
Beaufort County deputies were called to a home on Brickyard Point Road North on Lady’s Island last Saturday after receiving a report of a gunshot victim. Laventis Cohen, 47, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds
Smalls, 29, who lives at the home where the shooting occurred, was on the scene when deputies arrived, but was not initially charged, Bromage said. When investigators ran a check on Johnson through the National Crime Information Center, they learned he was wanted by Georgia law enforcement on unrelated assault charges, Bromage said. Local investigators then reached out to Richmond County in Georgia and advised them Johnson was a person of interest in Cohen’s death.
Anybody with information about the investigation is encouraged to contact Sgt. J.D. Tunis at 843-255-3426 or Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
