Man charged with shooting of ex-girlfriend in Okatie. Child was in the car at the time
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The murder of Okatie’s Jillian Angner
A Bluffton man faces a murder trial for what prosecutors called a calculated execution of his ex-girlfriend, a beloved employee of a local pharmacy who was fatally shot as she drove her child to school in early 2023.
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A man has been charged with shooting a woman in Okatie while she was in the car with her child, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
John Shea, 27, of Bluffton, was charged Thursday afternoon with two counts of attempted murder, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, jail records show.
Shea was in a relationship with the woman for a short time in 2022, according to Angela Viens, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. Viens would not answer questions about a potential motive.
The shooting was March 2 on Okatie’s Harrison Island Road, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. Officers arrived on Harrison Island Road, located off of Pinckney Colony Road, to find a red Jeep Cherokee with a 24-year-old woman “slumped over the steering wheel,” according to the police report.
Evidence suggests the woman was shot as she was driving her child to school.
Witnesses reported seeing a “suspicious truck” leaving the area right after shots were fired. Investigators later located the truck, which was impounded and searched for evidence. They obtained warrants for his arrest on Thursday.
The woman was in “critical condition” in a Savannah area hospital as of Thursday afternoon, Viens said.
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 5:12 PM.
