Interactive map: Beaufort County had 17 shootings in July ’23. Here’s where they happened
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Beaufort County police reported 17 incidents of gun violence in July 2023, including two deadly shootings and seven additional non-fatal gunshot wounds. The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette’s interactive map, created with data from local law enforcement, depicts a time period many residents felt was particularly dangerous — but the numbers are largely representative of a typical month, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Just over 70% of gun violence in July took place north of the Broad River, including both of the month’s fatal shootings. Burton resident Bryan Habersham, 29, was killed July 9 in a drive-by shooting at his home on Possum Hill Road. The next day, 66-year-old Candido Timmy Montanez, a longtime employee of the county’s Parks and Recreation department, was found dead lying on St. Helena’s Club Bride Road with multiple gunshot wounds.
Of the 17 incidents, only one investigation has ended in an arrest. In mid-August, Beaufort County deputies detained a 17-year-old Burton suspect after the teen was seen trespassing in a vacant apartment at the Hilton Head Gardens apartments. Police believe he was responsible for a July 19 shooting at the same complex, which targeted a group of juveniles in the parking lot and sent one to the hospital.
In one investigation involving volleys of AK-47 rounds ringing out in a Bluffton apartment complex parking lot on July 4, police identified three male residents who were responsible for the shots. The men turned the rifle over to police temporarily and no charges were filed, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
But relative to past months, July’s numbers don’t represent a rise in crime, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette in an interview at the end of July. Rather, the area’s rapidly rising population and residents’ increased awareness of crime — made possible through social media and Nixle alerts sent directly from police — give the illusion of a spike, he said.
“There are a lot more people getting a lot more information today,” Tanner said. “That was not routine or widespread several years ago.”
The bulk of the county’s recent gun violence comes in the form of “retaliatory shootings,” the sheriff said, fueled by personal feuds that can date back years. These usually explain instances of specific homes being targeted on a repetitive basis, he added, like the map’s clusters in Burton and eastern St. Helena Island.
Investigators are familiar with most people involved in these repeated shootings, Tanner added: Many are out on bond, and some have pending criminal charges. “But that by itself is not enough evidence for us to make a criminal charge on some of these retaliatory-type shootings until we get more evidence,” he explained.
Many incidents go unsolved because victims don’t wish to cooperate with law enforcement. Police have other options in case of unwilling witnesses, Tanner said, but the flow of information from residents “is not as free-flowing as we would like.”
Tanner stressed that Sheriff’s office investigators “aren’t in the business of tattletaling on people that call law enforcement.” Witnesses who believe they have key information can remain anonymous while calling an investigator or using the Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry tip line.
This story was originally published September 28, 2023 at 1:57 PM.
