Beaufort man convicted, sentenced for shooting Parker’s clerk in 2022 armed robbery
A Beaufort man received a hefty prison sentence for carrying out two armed robberies at local stores within two days in 2022 — and shooting a gas station clerk multiple times during the second incident at a now-demolished Parker’s.
Shykeim Raykawan Wright, 30, was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to eight felonies stemming from the two robberies and two other crimes. His new convictions include attempted murder, three counts of armed robbery, two felony firearm offenses, first-degree assault and battery and second-degree burglary, according to court records.
Police said Wright first targeted Port Royal’s Dollar General at 1675 Ribaut Road the morning of Jan. 24, 2022, holding two employees at gunpoint and running off with $372. The employees told police Wright pulled out a black Glock handgun and demanded money from the registers as they were ringing him up, according to previous reporting.
Two days later, Wright was robbing a nearby Parker’s store on Ribaut Road when he fired three shots at the clerk, striking him in the cheek, shoulder and leg. The employee survived after being rushed to Beaufort Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Security footage, a soda bottle and ‘very unique’ shoes
Security footage from the Parker’s location showed Wright wearing a head covering and a “COVID-type” face mask as he came to the counter with a slushy, soda and chips, Port Royal police said at the time. Wright pulled out his gun and quickly fired, stealing cash from the register and also demanding money from a customer as he left the store, the department said.
Police identified Wright as the gunman through several tips from community members, fingerprints collected from the soda bottle and the suspect’s “very unique” tennis shoes that were captured on security footage, Capt. Norman McCown of the Port Royal Police Department previously said.
“We called around to shoe stores and couldn’t find another pair anywhere in Beaufort County. We couldn’t even find a pair available for sale,” McCown said.
The Parker’s where the robbery occurred was demolished in early 2025, and the high-visibility lot at the corner of Ribaut Road and Lady’s Island Drive was put up for sale. The popular regional gas station chain said the location did not meet “brand standards.”
How long will he spend in prison?
At his sentencing, Wright received credit for the approximately four years he spent in jail after his February 2022 arrest in Marietta, Georgia. That brings his total sentence to just over 31 years.
Two of Wright’s guilty pleas entered Tuesday stemmed from completely separate crimes, like a May 2021 burglary and a brutal July 2022 assault on his cellmate in the Beaufort County jail, according to court documents.
As of Thursday, Wright did not yet appear in an online database of state inmates maintained by the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 12:18 PM.
