In wake of recent shootings, Beaufort residents grow wary. ‘Something just has to be done’
By Karl Puckett and
Sofia Sanchez
Beaufort, S.C.
Years ago, when Barb Nash first heard gunshots from her Beaufort home on Duke Street in the city’s Northwest Quadrant, the 911 dispatcher asked her what kind of weapons were fired.
Nash had no clue.
Today, Nash can identify semi-automatic gunfire and tell the difference between the types of weapons involved based on the sounds they make, the shooting is that frequent. And Nash and other residents have heard enough.
Shootings have become regular enough that Nash has a routine when she hears gunfire: She checks the clock and tries to count the shots, then calls 911.
“That evening I couldn’t keep count,” Nash, a 10-year resident who lives in a restored cottage with her husband, said of the number of shots fired last Sunday. “I lost it at 20-something. It was such rapid fire.”
In a recent escalation of shooting incidents in the last several months, at least three people have been shot. While police say it appears to be a small group of young men who are targeting each other, nearby houses and vehicles have been sprayed with bullets, leaving residents fearful they could inadvertently be caught in the line of fire, and they want it to stop. One of the shootings occurred near Beaufort Elementary School.
Long-time residents and newcomers in the Beaufort neighborhood are both raising concerns about public safety but the shootings also have sparked a larger conversation about judicial system and police staffing in the county.
Police Chief Dale McDorman told residents last week that police are doing everything they can to solve the crimes.
“I believe I know who the target was,” McDorman said told residents at a public meeting last Thursday regarding a shooting at the Elks Club last Sunday and others. “Here’s my frustration: There were 30 cars in that parking lot right before the shooting started. Two people have talked to us.”
At least two people were injured in the Elks Lodge shooting on Church Street, which is just around the corner from a police substation.
Police were on the scene, McDorman noted, in three minutes and administering first aid.
McDorman said 45 shell casings were collected at the scene. He expressed frustrations with the court system in Beaufort County which holds 12 one-week terms in general sessions court every year.
“When I’ve got 100 cases pending trial, and the sheriff’s got three (300) more, you need to have more court first and foremost,” McDorman said. “You will not find a cop in this community that thinks any prosecutor in this world is doing their job because we wouldn’t arrest them if they weren’t guilty. But that’s how we work.”
Jeff Kidd, a spokesperson for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, said the solicitor’s office was not at the meeting, because it was not invited. The solicitor’s office, he said, is only involved in investigations if law enforcement asks for their assistance.
News of the shooting traveled fast in the tight-knit community, said Pervis Walker, who has lived in the area his entire life.
“I got the phone call from people in the bathroom scared and crying,” Walker said. “That’s how fast it got back to us about what was going on.”
The shooting took place during a wake held for Willie Jacobs Jr., a prominent community member and Elks Club member, according to Walker. While the shooting has understandably shaken people, it was not enough to deter them from attending Jacobs’ burial the next day.
“People traveled from all over the United States to pay respect to this guy that we all loved,” Walker said. “People that hadn’t been home in 30 years showed up. They were determined to be there.”
The neighborhood has seen a recent spike of gun violence in the last year that is not a part of a “turf war” or gang violence, Walker said.
“The issues took place because of a lack of respect for our community,” Walker said. “What’s concerning is the African American residents are not being heard as if they don’t want to be safe as well.”
Two of his biggest worries are for the elderly who are vulnerable and “too scared to come outside” and people automatically pointing the finger at young Black men in the area.
“We want to feel safe, too, we are with you in this fight,” Walker said. “Don’t paint our children as all of us doing it. It’s a small group of kids who came into our community and the legal system has failed us.”
‘They have no respect’
Residents say they suspect they know who is involved, adding to their frustration. McDorman would not confirm nor deny the suspicions.
“Because I can’t prove it,” he said. “I can’t walk into court and say, ‘50 people know that these boys did it.”
Police do suspect, however, that a “core group of people who all know each other” are targeting each other in the shootings.
“They have no respect for anybody else’s life,” the police chief said.
Multiple shots were also fired in a March 3 drive-by shooting on Prince Street in which two residences were hit by bullets, McDorman said.
Long-time Northwest Quadrant resident David Jenkins speaks at a meeting in Beaufort where residents discussed gunfire that’s erupted on neighborhood streets. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Jenkins said. Karl Puckett
“That’s pretty brazen,” said Kevin Woodlock of the Old Commons Neighborhood Association, who lives on Duke Street.
The two most recent shootings came the same month that a national magazine declared Beaufort was the best small city in the South to visit.
In November, a man was shot in his car at the intersection of Washington and Wilmington streets and drove himself to the hospital. He later recovered. In that instance, at least 15 shell casings were found at the intersection.
David Jenkins, who grew up in the Northwest Quadrant, says it was his son who was shot in November.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Jenkins said. “People are actually afraid to walk the streets because they never know when the shooting might start. People are actually afraid. It’s never been like this in Beaufort, in the North Quad. Something just has to be done.”
At the time of the shooting at the Elks Club, Jenkins says, kids were playing outside.
The recent shootings prompted three residents to raise the issue publicly at a City Council meeting last Tuesday. The meeting last Thursday was a rare joint meeting of the Northwest and Old Commons neighborhood associations called to air concerns and hear from McDorman.
“It seems like a big problem for a small city,” said Woodlock of the Old Commons Neighborhood Association. “It’s very scary.”
Beaufort neighborhoods including the Northwest Quadrant. City of Beaufort
More communication needed
Residents say they’re frustrated the cases haven’t been solved and they can’t get more information.
“There’s no feedback,” said Woodlock, who also wonders whether vacancies within the department are hindering the response.
There currently are 10 police officer vacancies in the Beaufort Police Department. Recruiting has been a challenge, especially in today’s environment, Mayor Stephen Murray said, but the city recently increase the starting pay of officers to $44,000 with benefits. Certified officers get $50,000 annually, he said. The average annual salary for an entry-level police officer in the United States is $58,664, according to Indeed, a job-search website.
McDorman and City Manager Bill Prokop said the shootings have nothing to do with vacancies.
“It’s not for a lack of trying, trust me,” McDorman said of the department’s attempts arrest those who are responsible. He said the department needs more communication from the public. “Even one of the victims refuses to talk to us,” he said.
The Northwest Quadrant neighborhood, Walker said, is still close despite gentrification and the recent gun violence. Whether it is bringing food to elderly members in the community or fixing a bike for a neighborhood kid, they are there for one another and will continue to be.
“We take it very seriously,” Walker said. “Fear of retaliation is a very real fear for me. … We’ve got to at this point and it’s OK to talk to the police. If we don’t, what do we have?”
Walker said he trusts that McDorman and police are doing everything possible to solve the cases.
As of Monday, the investigation into the shootings is ongoing and no charges have been filed, Erdel said.
Beaufort Police Chief Dale McDorman and Mayor Stephen Murray address questions about recent shootings from residents during a meeting of the Northwest Quadrant and Old Commons neighborhood associations. “They have no respect for life,” McDorman said of those who are involved. Karl Puckett
One woman who spoke at the meeting of the neighborhood associations said gunfire was so close that she lay down on the floor of her home, yet she could find no information about it the next day.
“When can I get up, when is it over?” she asked. “We don’t know if they’re still out there, if we’re safe or not. There’s no police log that we can access.”
As far as communication goes, McDorman said in the meeting he “failed you” the night of the Elks Lodge shooting. The department is currently looking into other forms of communication such as a Nixle system the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office uses to keep residents up-to-date about public safety incidents.
The department also is looking into a “more interactive” communication system to alert residents about police activity. George Erdel, a spokesperson for the police department, did not have a timeline Monday for when the new communication system would be adopted. The city is currently redesigning its website to make it more user friendly, he said.
On Friday, the Police Department announced on Facebook it would begin posting its daily summary of police reports from the previous 24 hours. Those logs are available and posted daily on the city’s website, but, he said, “you have to dig” to find it. The weekend of the shooting, the website was down.
Gunfire erupted outside the Elks Club on Church Street in Beaufort last Sunday. “I lost it at 20-something,” resident Barb Nash said of the number of shots fired. “It was such rapid fire.” Karl Puckett
Murray, the mayor, who said he initially thought he was hearing fireworks when shots rang out last Sunday, called the shootings “totally unacceptable” and promised the city would work with police to put a stop to it, but they need help. He urged residents to call the city’s non-emergency dispatch number at 843-524-2777 if they see suspicious behavior.
As for Nash, the Duke Street resident, she wants to see more of a police presence in the area and improved communication between police and residents.
For Nash, the scariest aspect of the recent shootings is the type of weapons involved.
“It used to be the occasional one or two shots fired,” Nash said. “Now you can’t even count them anymore.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
Karl Puckett covers the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and other communities north of the Broad River for The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet. The Minnesota native also has worked at newspapers in his home state, Alaska, Wisconsin and Montana.
Sofia Sanchez is a breaking news reporter at The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. She reports on crime and developing stories in Beaufort and its surrounding areas. Sofia is a Cuban-American reporter from Florida and graduated from Florida International University in 2020.
