Man avoids prison after shooting at passing pickup truck near Old Town Bluffton
One of two gunmen has pleaded guilty after two apparent retaliatory shootings near Old Town Bluffton about three years ago. There were no injuries in the two separate streams of bullets that pierced through a pickup truck and, less than 15 minutes later, through the walls of a Goethe Road home.
Okatie resident Ty’Quan Qua’Mel Graham, 21, was convicted Thursday of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, which is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison under South Carolina law. Graham was sentenced to two years in prison through a negotiated plea, according to his sentencing sheet, but appeared to avoid prison time by receiving credit for 818 days already spent in the Beaufort County jail since his arrest.
Graham’s arrest warrant says he was in the front yard of a Goethe Road home when he fired two rounds at a passing pickup truck driven by Bluffton man Juan Daniel Moctezuma, 21, the afternoon of June 21, 2023.
About 15 minutes later, Moctezuma allegedly returned to the area on foot and fired several pistol rounds at the same residence, sending multiple people on the front porch running for cover, according to a Bluffton Police Department report. One of those people told police Graham had stopped by to ask for a cigarette shortly before bullets flew into the home.
Moctezuma was arrested five days later in connection with the second shooting. His charges of attempted murder, discharging firearms into a dwelling and possession of a firearm during a violent crime remain pending in Beaufort County court.
In a police interview following his arrest, Moctezuma told police the shots fired at his pickup stemmed from a local dispute that “all started in high school,” although he said he could not identify the shooter. He said the “clique” that had been targeting him was also behind a shooting at his home the year before, according to the police report.
Although police obtained Graham’s arrest warrants by the end of June 2023, he wasn’t charged in connection with the shooting until after his arrest in Orangeburg County that December, the report says. He has been in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center since then; judicial records show Graham and his attorneys filed five motions for bond over his 2-plus years in jail.
Graham’s other charges linked to the June shooting, attempted murder and a felony firearms charge, were dropped in early March because a key witness would not cooperate with investigators. A dismissal sheet said prosecutors could not prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jail records show Graham remained in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center as of Sunday afternoon.
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 5:07 PM.
