He was a rising star in the restaurant scene when shot during a Beaufort area card game

Medicus Watson, 26, was the one running the show behind the scene’s at Madison’s restaurant in Port Royal at the time of his death late last month, the restaurant’s owner, Evan Hallinan said Wedesnday.

Hallinan said the sous chef, shot and killed during an argument that started over a card game on Dec. 30, had been working his way up through the Beaufort area restaurant scene in recent years.

“Frankly, long-term he we would have employed him forever in some sort of management role and he would have steadily moved up in the organization,” Hallinan said. “I think he could have chosen pretty much anywhere he wanted to work and been welcomed in the door.”

Watson, of Seabrook, started working at Madison’s before it opened in May 2018. He previously worked at Emily’s and Dockside Waterfront Restaurant.

“Emily’s worked really hard with him,” Hallinan said. “He just elevated his craft. Our restaurant came along just in time to elevate him to the next level. We have all just been so proud of him.”

Watson started changing the menu as soon as he arrived, Hallinan said.

“He helped me develop all the recipes and standardized everything,” Hallinan said. “He helped recruit and train staff.”

Just a year after opening, Madison’s won best restaurant for Beaufort in the Island Packet’s 2019 Reader’s Choice Awards. It also won best chef in the Best of Beaufort Eat Sleep Play awards.

“When we won these awards I had not actually cooked dinner at Madison’s for three to four months,” Hallinan said. “You could absolutely say Medicus was working the job as the best.”

The news of Watson’s death stopped Hallinan in his tracks.

Hallinan had recently attended Watson’s daughter’s first birthday party.

“You think of that (party) and his mother, sister brother and you think of the extension of his restaurant family,” Hallinan said. “The pain just ripples and ripples. It hurts on a lot of levels.”

Beaufort County Homicides

Watson is one of 15 homicides in Beaufort County in 2019.

“Here is a guy who really doubled down on his career and on paper was doing all the right things and now he is gone because of gun violence?” Hallinan said. “My guy had worked so hard to improve his life, to get his career going.”

Gunshot wound was the cause of death for 13 of the 15 homicides, per Beaufort County Coroner’s Office data.

Watson was the third fatal gunshot victim in December.

Dimitri Weaver, 17, of Port Royal, died from a gunshot wound on Dec. 12 and Trey Blackshear, 18, of Hilton Head Island died from a gunshot wound on Dec. 23.

“It is senseless,” Hallinan says of Watson’s death. “What’s the point? That’s what frustrates me. What is the solution?”

The Arrest

Terrance Morgan, 30, of Gray’s Hill was charged in Watson’s murder and attempted murder the same day as the shooting. He was charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime the following day.

A Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office release says Morgan pointed a stolen handgun at deputies during his arrest at his home on Peaceful Way.

No one was hurt during the arrest.

Court and prison records show Morgan has a violent criminal history.

In 2011, Morgan was arrested for attempted murder in 2011 but the charges were dismissed in 2013. An Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette story from the time says Morgan shot two of his neighbors as the pair attempted to wrestle a gun from his hands.

An assault and battery in the second degree was filed the same day the attempted murder charge was dismissed. He was convicted on the charge and a judge sentenced him to time served.

A couple days after the 2013 assault and battery charge, he was arrested for criminal domestic violence and a month later threatening the life, person or family of a public official, teacher and principal.

In February 2014, he was arrested in the assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature of a Beaufort woman acquainted with Morgan’s girlfriend, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette reported at the time.

The article says the woman was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital and later transferred to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where she underwent hours of surgery to repair facial fractures and her jaw.

He was convicted on the charge and the 2013 threatening charge in December 2015.

S.C. Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said Thursday that Morgan was incarcerated in prison in 2015 following the convictions.

He was released in April 2016 and returned in June 2017 after violating probation Shain said. He served the remainder of his sentence and was released in March 2018.

It is unknown if the probation violation is connected to Morgan being arrested in the February 2017 armed robbery of the Burton Food Lion on Shanklin Road.. A jury found Morgan not guilty of the crime in 2018.

Morgan also saw an assault and battery in the second degree charge dismissed in 2018, according to court records.

Funeral Arrangements

A funeral will be held for Watson at noon on Saturday at the Friendship Holiness Church, 6 Cuyler Lane, Seabrook. A burial will follow in the Seabrook Cemetery.

“This seems like something that could be so easily avoided but instead lives were taken,” Hallinan said. “In this case we lost a brother, father and son. A shooter who may have lost his life as well. It just seems like a tragic waste of life.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 10:49 AM.