Neighbors of man charged with shooting Sheriff's Office deputy knew little about him

This story was updated 10:28 a.m. June 19, 2015, to clarify that the arrest took place near, but not in, the Royal Pines neighborhood.

Neighbors of a Lady's Island man charged with attempted murder in connection with the shooting of a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office deputy said they knew very little about him.

Several of them said they had rarely seen 28-year-old Tray Jabari Graves, the man taken into custody by Sheriff's Office and Drug Enforcement Administration personnel following a 6:30 a.m. raid on the home Wednesday. Graves in charged in connection with the wounding of Sgt. Mark Cobb, an 11-year-veteran of the department and a member of its SWAT team.

Graves is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center. The shooting occurred as deputies and DEA personnel searched the home for drugs, officials said.

Graves was charged with cocaine possession in Hampton County in 2006, according to S.C. Law Enforcement Division criminal records. He was convicted the following year and sentenced to two years probation.

He has had charges of driving with a suspended license and a misdemeanor accessory to a felony in Hampton County on his criminal record, but neither resulted in jail time or probation.

His neighbors on Westminister Place, the circle of homes known as Westminster and tucked in behind Royal Pines, were shocked to see the massive law enforcement presence on their quiet street.

Alex Snell, who lives a few doors down from the raided home, said she had never experienced anything like it in her 14 years on the street.

"We never get this kind of excitement," she said. "It's a big shock. The house is really quiet. Seldom do we see someone coming and going."

Snell and other neighbors said they heard no gunshots, but opened their doors to find crime scene tape and law enforcement filling the street. Snell's daughter alerted her to the scene after she left for work around 7 a.m.

Snell said one of her dogs -- a rescue named Brody she adopted three weeks ago -- likely heard the shots from her yard and ran to the door. Snell said the dog began to bark and had tried to hide after re-entering the home.

Another neighbor, Nicole Bogdan, said she, too, was shocked to see authorities down the street when she opened her garage to walk her dog around 7 a.m..

She said the people renting the raided home were rarely seen, and there was little traffic to and from the address.

Snell said the blinds were almost always drawn in the home.

Other neighbors said they rarely saw the home's residents outside. No one was sure when Graves moved into the home.

One neighbor, who asked not to be named, said Graves worked in landscaping and had helped fix a small palm tree in his yard. The neighbor and others on the street said Graves and the other residents of the home left for work around dawn most days and were noticeable for the speed and noise their cars made when leaving.

Sheriff's deputies and DEA agents from the Charleston Task Force remained on scene for several hours Wednesday morning after the shooting as other neighbors drove past the house marked off with crime scene tape.

A member of the Sheriff's Office drug unit told five other residents of the home the search had been completed around 11 a.m.

All of those residents declined comment and left the area after speaking with authorities.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.

This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Neighbors of man charged with shooting Sheriff's Office deputy knew little about him."