Motive for Bluffton shooting that killed Hilton Head teen detailed in arrest warrants
Two suspects arrested earlier this week in connection with the Dec. 23 fatal shooting of a Hilton Head Island teen were in the vehicle that fled the scene, according to arrest warrants obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers.
The victim, 18-year-old Trey Blackshear, was found dead in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the Lord of Life Lutheran Church parking lot along Buckwalter Parkway. He had been shot multiple times.
Police said after the shooting that two suspects ran across the street to a gas station then to a bank, where they got into a car and drove away. Those suspects were described as two males in their late teens or early 20s seen wearing dark-colored hoodies and jeans at the time of the killing.
Days after the shooting, a 16-year-old male turned himself in to law enforcement and was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia. Because he is a minor, the teen’s identity has not been released. Police have also declined to release details of his connection to the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation.
This week, Jaesean Jeffrey Redd, 20, and Kionna Michele Ferguson, 19, were arrested and each charged with accessory after the fact to murder in connection with Blackshear’s death.
The warrant for Ferguson’s arrest says she drove herself and the other suspects in her vehicle, a brown 2001 Toyota Camry, to Bluffton to meet the victim.
“During an attempted robbery, the co-defendants shot and killed the victim, (name redacted), before fleeing the scene in the vehicle driven by (Ferguson),” it says.
Although the victim’s name is redacted from the arrest warrants, Bluffton Police previously confirmed Ferguson was arrested as part of the investigation into Blackshear’s murder.
The arrest warrant for Redd says he was a passenger in the vehicle that left the scene.
Both warrants say surveillance videos from nearby businesses were able to place Redd and Ferguson in the vehicle during and after the shooting. Both suspects also “confirmed” they were inside the car during interviews with police.
According to the jail log, Redd and Ferguson both live in the same home on Mink Point Boulevard in Burton.
Redd, who was arrested by Bluffton Police on Wednesday, has multiple weapons charges and an assault charge pending from an August arrest, according to Beaufort County court documents. He’d also previously pleaded guilty to an armed robbery charge in 2017 after it was reported that he stole cash, a cell phone, and tattoo equipment from a man.
In addition to the accessory after the fact to murder charge, Redd was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center on a probation and parole violation, according to the jail log.
The only previous criminal charge listed for Ferguson in the Beaufort County public index is a first offense possession of marijuana.
Both Redd and Ferguson were incarcerated as of late Friday morning. Redd is being held on a $150,000 cash bond and Ferguson on a $100,000 cash bond.
The investigation is active and Bluffton Police are still searching for additional suspects, the department’s spokesperson Capt. Joe Babkiewicz said Thursday.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 12:00 PM.
