Police: Hundreds of service calls led to Willie’s shutdown. Here’s what they were for
After the mass shooting that killed four people and injured 15 others outside Willie’s Bar and Grill, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office took steps to shut down the restaurant, citing a problematic history of crime at the St. Helena Island location.
“When we pulled calls for service at that location, you had 400 in the past 10 years,” Sheriff P.J. Tanner told Willie’s owner Willie Turral at a press conference earlier this month where officials announced the arrest of one of three suspected shooters.
Tanner said his department had not considered closing down Willie’s until after the mass shooting in the early hours of Oct. 12.
“The shooting incident itself, it actually allowed us to go in-depth about the location,” Tanner told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “Because when we’re investigating a crime like this, we go in-depth about the location, the business owner, the lease, everything about it. We want to know everything about the location.”
The sheriff’s office sent letters to state and local officials asking to revoke the bar’s business and alcohol licenses. Its licenses to sell beer, wine and liquor were temporarily suspended Nov. 12. Its business license remained active but was under review per request of law enforcement. At a Nov. 17 hearing in Columbia, lawyers for the state Department of Revenue argued that Willie’s was a “nuisance” bar with a pattern of dangerous and unmanageable crowds.
Turral initially said he would contend officials’ attempts to shut down his bar. But in mid-November, he took down the bar’s sign from the front patio and announced plans to repurpose the building for an economic development center.
Still, some community members took issue with law enforcement’s decision to shut the bar down, arguing for more proactive policing efforts and questioning the call numbers that were presented.
Turral himself expressed worry about violence manifesting elsewhere on St. Helena without a gathering space like Willie’s.
“Shutting this business down is only going to create micro-pockets of chaos on this island,” Turral said. “Now we don’t have to worry about shots firing in my parking lot, but shots entering homes through house parties in neighborhoods.”
Through a public records request, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette obtained a list of the calls for service made to 7 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the location of Willie’s Bar and Grill, formerly known as Island Grill, since 2014.
Only about 90 of those calls were made while Turral ran the location. He announced the opening of Willie’s in October 2023. Of those 90, 17 were for extra patrols of the business, 20 were for disturbances and 17 were case follow-ups in the weeks following the mass shooting.
Of the 467 total calls made for service since 2014:
- 165 were for extra patrol for a business.
- 89 were for extra patrol for a residence.
- 58 were for disturbances.
- 27 were for case follow-ups.
- 16 were for activated alarms.
- 15 were for traffic stops.
- 10 were for shots fired.
- 10 were for police escorts.
- 8 were for miscellaneous calls.
- 7 were for suspicious vehicles.
- 6 were labeled “assist other,” meaning deputies were called to assist by another agency.
- 5 were for stolen vehicles.
- 5 were for 911 hang-ups.
- 4 were for breaking and entering.
- 4 were for assault and battery.
- 3 were for suspicious activity.
- 3 were for civil processes.
- 3 were for directing traffic.
- 3 were for gunshot wounds.
- 3 were for hit and runs.
- 3 were for stolen property.
- 3 were for weapon-related calls.
- 2 were for traffic accidents.
- 2 were for fights.
- 2 were for warrants being served.
- 2 were for narcotics.
- 1 was for a traffic accident involving a county vehicle.
- 1 was for domestic violence.
- 1 was for harassment.
- 1 was for an intoxicated person.
- 1 was for a man down.
- 1 was for property damage.
- 1 was for a radar test.
- 1 was for a storm call.
- 1 was for vandalism.
This story was originally published November 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
