Crime & Public Safety

Burton man arrested, charged with armed robbery at Beaufort Dollar General

A Burton man accused of attacking a cashier and robbing the Boundary Street Dollar General on Tuesday evening has been arrested, according to police.

Andrew Lee Brown Jr., 37, has been charged with one count of armed robbery. He’s being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center on $20,000 bond.

According to a Facebook post by Beaufort Police Department, the cashier told police that Brown approached the register around 5 p.m. Tuesday, claiming he had a gun and asking for the contents of the register.

“Brown then allegedly came around the counter and began to attack the cashier, who fought back in an effort to defend himself,” the post read. “During the ensuing fight Brown fled the store.”

While investigating the robbery, police found another person who they said Brown allegedly robbed on Walsh Drive shortly before he entered the Dollar General.

Brown was located and arrested later Tuesday night on Eastern Road.

This is the second time in as many months that a Beaufort County Dollar General has been robbed. On Jan. 24, a man allegedly asked two employees at the Dollar General on Ribaut Road for help finding baby diapers, then pulled out a handgun as he was checking out. He left with $372 in cash from the register, police said.

Police later named Shykeim Raykawan Wright, a 25-year-old Beaufort man, as a suspect in the Jan. 24 robbery. Wright has been accused in the Jan. 26 shooting of a Port Royal gas station clerk in a separate armed robbery, and was arrested Feb. 2 in Georgia.

Wright has been charged with attempted murder, three counts of armed robbery, three counts of possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime, and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

When we publish mugshots

The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette publishes police booking photos, or mugshots, in the following instances:

  • In situations where a public figure or someone in a position of public trust is arrested
  • In cases where there is an immediate and widespread threat to public safety
  • In cases where the arrested person is accused of a crime reporters have evidence to believe involved numerous, unknown victims

Reporters will avoid using mugshots as lead images for online articles in order to limit their circulation on social media, except in cases where the public is served by the immediate identification of the accused. Reporters and editors may use discretion in situations that don’t meet the criteria outlined in this policy but still present a compelling reason to publish a mugshot.

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Rachel Jones
The Island Packet
Rachel Jones covers education for the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has worked for the Daily Tar Heel and Charlotte Observer. She has won awards from the South Carolina Press Association, Associated College Press and North Carolina College Media Association for feature writing and education reporting.
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