Authorities have charged a 27-year-old man with murder in a mass shooting that left four people dead and 15 others wounded during a crowded high school reunion event on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.
According to The Associated Press, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner announced Friday that investigators served arrest warrants on Anferny Freeman, who was already in custody on an unrelated machine gun possession charge. Freeman is now facing four counts of murder.
The shooting erupted in the early hours of Oct. 12 at Willie’s Bar and Grill, where roughly 350 people had gathered for the 25th reunion of Battery Creek High School’s Class of 2000.
Deputies say gunfire broke out after Freeman and another man — who was later killed — had an encounter that “was not very friendly” before exchanging shots.
Freeman was hit in the stomach and driven to a hospital, Sheriff Tanner said.
Investigators believe a third shooter was also involved. Tanner said the conclusion came from analyzing bullets, shell casings, video evidence, and multiple interviews. “I expect more charges to be made. We have not forgotten about the other 15 victims,” he said.
A judge denied bond for Freeman on the murder charges. Court and jail records listed no attorney representing him.
The gunfire erupted near last call at the reunion party, and Tanner said the shooters fired indiscriminately into the crowd. Days after the attack, the sheriff publicly expressed frustration that witnesses were refusing to come forward.
On Friday, he said that investigators eventually obtained cooperation, helping them build their case.
Tanner declined to answer several key questions, including who fired first, what weapons were used, and how Freeman obtained his gun. “How all that happened is for a courtroom and not here,” he said.
Willie’s Bar — known for its Gullah-inspired cuisine and described on its website as a “community pillar” — has drawn scrutiny from local officials.
Tanner said deputies have been called to the business hundreds of times and argued it poses a continuing danger to the community. Someone affiliated with the bar pressed the sheriff during the news conference about efforts to have it declared a nuisance.
“The bottom line is we are going to put you out of business,” Tanner said.
St. Helena Island is home to an estimated 5,000 or more Gullah residents, many of whom trace their ancestry to enslaved West Africans who worked on the region’s historic rice plantations before gaining freedom after the Civil War.
