Teen arrested after shooting in Old Town Bluffton parking lot
Police have arrested a Bluffton teenager after another teen was shot during an apparent robbery last week in Old Town Bluffton.
Malik Geoffrey Winston, 19, was charged Monday afternoon with attempted murder, armed robbery and a related firearms offense.
The gunshot victim, an 18-year-old male from Hilton Head Island, remained at the hospital with serious injuries as of Monday.
Police responded to the Dollar General at 1225 May River Road around 8 p.m. on Sept. 3, finding the victim inside a car in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. He was taken via air ambulance to the Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.
Eydie Moody, a spokesperson for the Bluffton Police Department, would not say whether Winston was found to have stolen anything during the alleged robbery.
Beaufort County court records show Winston was previously arrested in late May on charges of marijuana possession, possessing alcohol while underage and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The charges stem from a traffic stop the night of May 28, 2025, when Winston and four other passengers inside a white lifted truck — three of whom were underage — were found with alcohol, THC vaping devices and items believed to be stolen in an earlier robbery on Bluffton’s Ulmer Road. Despite having camera footage that appeared to show the truck’s occupants carrying out the theft, deputies did not charge the teens with robbery because a victim in the crime was never found. Police concluded that a victim would not come forward because “the items robbed were unlawful,” according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
A week earlier in Jasper County, Winston was charged with failing to pull over for a traffic stop, lying to police and possessing a machine gun or sawed-off firearm.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Winston remained in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center. It was not immediately clear if he was granted bond.
