Man sparked taser at boys riding e-bikes in Bluffton neighborhood, police say
An 80-year-old man admitted to sparking a taser at a group of boys riding electric bicycles in a Bluffton-area neighborhood last week, according to police. The relatives of one of the children declined to press charges.
Beaufort County deputies arrived around 7:30 p.m. Friday to The Willows neighborhood, located off Buckwalter Parkway. They knocked on the suspect’s door but did not get an answer, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.
Police then spoke with the group of boys at one of their homes down the street. The children told deputies that as they tried passing the elderly man on their e-bikes, he allegedly “pulled out a small handheld taser and sparked it” in their direction, the report says.
Speaking with one of the children’s grandparents, police said they had enough probable cause to make an arrest. But “after contemplation,” the grandparents asked police only to have a “conversation” with the suspect, according to the report.
The man later answered the door to police and admitted to his use of the taser, deputies noted. He also “expressed his frustration with all the kids in the neighborhood on their electric bicycles,” the police report says.
Deputies told the man his issues with e-bikes should be taken up with his homeowners’ association rather than police. They called his use of the taser “completely inappropriate” and urged him to keep the weapon in his pocket while walking around the neighborhood, according to the report.
Sheriff’s office spokesperson Lt. Daniel Allen told The Packet it would be difficult to speculate what criminal charges would be applied without knowing the incident’s full context, including whether the 80-year-old made verbal threats toward the children. Allen added that it was unclear how far away the children’s e-bikes were from the suspect when he allegedly sparked the taser.
Tensions simmer over e-bikes in Beaufort County
Friday’s incident adds to a growing list of confrontations appearing to stem from residents’ frustrations over e-bikes, which are street legal in South Carolina and popular among local children. Beaufort County’s municipalities and private communities have grappled with the question of how to regulate the speedy, high-powered vehicles and prioritize safety.
In early November, a man from the nearby Pine Ridge neighborhood was arrested by Bluffton police for allegedly drawing a gun on a 15-year-old boy riding an e-bike past his house, according to previous reporting. Speaking with police, he cited “ongoing issues” with neighborhood children riding e-bikes.
Four months later, a mom in the Bluffton-area Heritage Lakes neighborhood told police her son’s e-bike tire was popped by a welded contraption of bent nails that she said appeared to have been planted on the community’s pathways by a neighbor who was disgruntled with e-bikes.
In an interview with The Island Packet, the mother described the contraptions as a sort of homemade “caltrop,” a spiked weapon thrown on the battlefield during wartime. She told her son she was worried about his safety because some residents get “very irate” about e-bike usage.
“Someone had maniacally, very consciously, put these all over the trail,” she told a reporter, asking to remain anonymous in fear of retribution. “They are clearly homemade and made to pop tires.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 2:33 PM.
