Police accuse 27-year-old man in shooting last summer on Hilton Head that injured 2
A Bluffton man accused in a Jasper County burglary last summer faces felony charges in Beaufort County nine months after police allege he shot two people on Hilton Head.
Francisco Cortes, 27, was charged Monday with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of discharging a firearm into a dwelling, unlawful carrying of a pistol and possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime, according to the Beaufort County Detention Center jail log.
Cortes was transferred to the detention center in Beaufort Monday following his July 8, 2021, arrest by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly breaking into a church near Yemassee three times from July 6-8, according to previous reporting by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
In the burglary, police accused Cortes of causing damages worth $2,000 to the rosemary Outreach Ministry and stealing $1,000 in cash. In that case, he was charged with second-degree burglary and malicious injury to property, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Chief Deputy Jeff Crosby said Tuesday. Those charges are still pending, court records show.
On July 5, 2021, at around 4 a.m. on Hilton Head, police allege Cortes shot through the front door of an apartment at The Oaks, an apartment complex on the north end of the island, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said in a release at the time. Cortes fired six rounds of bullets into the apartment, hitting two of the four people who were inside, according to an arrest warrant.
Some of the bullets went through the walls into another apartment and “almost hit a third victim,” the warrant said. Cortes was identified by witnesses and security footage at the apartment complex.
Cortes’ defense attorney, Carolyn Carmody, declined a reporter’s request for comment.
Cortes was still in custody at the detention center in Beaufort as of Tuesday afternoon.
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The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers are making an effort to update stories we’ve published where criminal charges were filed. Criminal charges mean law enforcement had probable cause to arrest someone, but a court decides on a person’s guilt and conviction. If our newspaper has written about a crime where charges were brought, we want to use public records to show what happened in that case. If you think a crime story featuring you or someone you know needs updating, email Sofia Sanchez at ssanchez@islandpacket.com or newsroom@islandpacket.com.
