Man wanted in Hilton Head shooting arrested, accused of robbing Jasper Co. church 3 times
A Bluffton man wanted in a Hilton Head Island shooting faces charges in Jasper County after police accused him of robbing a church three times.
Francisco Cortes, 27, of Bluffton was wanted by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in a shooting last Monday that injured two people at the Oaks apartments on Hilton Head.
Cortes turned up, according to police, when the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office was investigating a series of robberies at a church near Yemassee.
Cortes is accused of robbing the Rosemary Outreach Ministry church on Rosemary Road, stealing $1,000 in cash and causing $2,000 in damage, according to Chief Deputy Jeff Crosby with the Sheriff’s Office.
He said Cortes hit the church three times over three days, on July 6, 7, and 8.
On Thursday night, deputies decided to wait inside the church for whoever was robbing the place to return.
After arriving, one deputy, who is also a minister at Rosemary Outreach, pulled at the attic door and found it jammed.
He kept pulling. And then a person’s knee burst out of the attic wall, according to Crosby.
Crosby said it was Cortes, who they believe was hiding inside the church over the past few days.
The Sheriff’s Office charged him with one count of burglary in the second degree, and additional charges are possible, Crosby said.
Cortes has six charges pending from the Hilton Head apartment shooting. They include two counts of attempted murder, two counts of discharging a firearm into a dwelling, one count of possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime, and one count of unlawful carrying of a pistol.
He is accused of injuring two people at 4 a.m. on July 5. They were taken to Memorial Health Medical Center in Savannah, treated and released the same day, according to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Bob Bromage.
Bromage said Cortes fired the shots into the door of the apartment.
A Sheriff’s Office report said a deputy had to apply a tourniquet to one of the victim’s arms, which was bleeding profusely from the gunshot.
Bromage said the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is coordinating with Jasper County in charging Cortes with the Hilton Head shooting.
