Bar owner: Panic and a hail of gunfire in St. Helena club. ‘It was terrorism’
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St. Helena Mass Shooting
A mass shooting on St. Helena Island killed four people and left a quiet seaside community reeling.
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Bar owner William Turral has barely slept and cries almost continually since witnessing the worst and best of humanity during a mass shooting early Sunday, when hundreds were gathered inside and outside his venue.
Last call was nearing at Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island early Sunday when the first shots rang out.
The crowded venue was filled with Battery Creek High School alumni celebrating at a “tailgate party.” But in the time it takes to pull a trigger, the good time turned to terror as what sounded like machine-gun fire sprayed the crowd gathered outside the popular bar and grill. Screams followed. Panicked patrons looked for escape routes.
The gunfire from a currently unidentified weapon struck and killed A’Shan’tek Milledge, 22, of Burton; Amoms Gary, 54, of St. Helena; and Chiraad “Roddi” Smalls, 33, and Kashawn “KK” Glaze, 22, both of Beaufort. Several others were wounded.
Now the search is on for the killer or killers who turned a party into a killing field, leaving bodies strewn on the property of the bar across the street from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, where a large photograph of the civil rights leader lines the fence.
“It’s not a natural course of events you plan on witnessing,” he told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet.
Turral’s comments came Monday, when a makeshift memorial of candles and flowers had been erected outside the bar in memory of the victims who died in the barrage of gunfire. Several teary-eyed friends showed up throughout the morning. They walked past the flowers and observed the yellow tape at the scene. One woman, overcome with grief, wept loudly.
The bar is located at the intersection of Sea Island Parkway and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where shops and restaurants serve as the hub of the Gullah Geechee sea island community.
Turral doesn’t know what kind of weapon or weapons were involved but the gun or guns definitely were not single-shot.
“Nobody should have that gun unless you’re at war,” Turral said. “It’s a war-time gun.”
The Sheriff’s Office said Monday it is investigating “persons of interest.”
Turral insists that those responsible were not part of the reunion event.
“None of them were patrons of the building,” Turral said of the person or persons who fired the shots. “They were terrorists who came into a crowded lot of people and opened fire.”
He added: “We’re in a large tinderbox of youth carrying high-powered guns.”
When the shooting started, he said, it sounded like a war zone.
The terror struck at the peak of the party, with shots erupting around 1 a.m. Sunday, 30 minutes before last call. Many ran toward the bar and entered through the kitchen and a side door.
Some patrons ran to save others
“We were terrorized,” Turral said.
But he says he also witnessed heroes Sunday morning.
Some of the patrons ran toward injured people who needed assistance, instead of seeking cover. He saw people performing CPR on victims. He saw others laying on top of people to protect them.
“There is no way to describe it,” Turral said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 5:04 PM.
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