New report: Hilton Head bartender was found unconscious on stairs before he died
A Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report reveals new details about the morning a Hilton Head bartender was found unconscious on the island’s south end last Saturday.
Brian Turano, 46, was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs outside a business in Orleans Plaza on New Orleans Road after 7:30 a.m., the report says.
He was on his back with his feet still on the steps, and there was blood where his head was lying, according to the report.
The responding deputy wrote in the report that he could “smell the strong odor” of alcohol.
EMS responders said his body temperature was low, leading them to believe that Turano had been lying at the bottom of the stairs “for quite some time,” the report said.
Turano — who was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah with multiple skull fractures, broken ribs and a broken wrist — was in a coma until he died Tuesday afternoon. His cause of death was listed as traumatic brain injury after a fall down the stairs, according to the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the circumstances that led to Turano’s death, spokesperson Capt. Bob Bromage told The Island Packet on Thursday.
Earlier in the week, the death wasn’t being actively investigated. Bromage had said it appeared to be an accident and there was nothing to indicate foul play was involved.
Turano was a bartender at FISH Casual Coastal Seafood in the Coligny area at the time of his death.
