Coroner names 36-year-old St. Helena man fatally shot inside car Tuesday night
A 36-year-old man found dead in a car with multiple gunshot wounds late Tuesday night has been identified as St. Helena resident Brandon Lee Simmons, the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office announced Thursday morning.
Simmons’ manner of death was ruled as homicide while an official cause of death is pending further results, said Deputy Coroner Andrew McNece. An autopsy will be completed Thursday at the county’s facilities.
The number of gunshot wounds is currently unknown, McNece said.
Police arrived to the area of Harbor Breeze Drive on southeastern St. Helena around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a report of shots being fired. There, they found Simmons’ body with “multiple gunshot wounds” in the driver’s seat of a car parked in the middle of the street, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Angela Viens. No other passengers were inside the car.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting death as a murder. A suspect has not been identified as of Thursday morning.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been scheduled but will be held at Marshel’s Wright-Donaldson Home for Funerals in Beaufort. Simmons was a native of the Grays Hill community in unincorporated Beaufort County, according to his obituary.
