ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. – Authorities on Monday identified the three men and a woman who were killed during a weekend mass shooting at a bar on a South Carolina island. At least 20 other people were wounded.
Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island was crowded with people when the shooting started on Sunday, including many who had attended Battery Creek High School in Beaufort and were at the bar for an alumni event.
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Flowers and candles were placed outside the bar as the Beaufort County coroner's office identified the dead as Kashawn Glaze, 22, Chiraad Smalls, 33, Amos Gary, 54 and A’shan’tek Milledge, 22.
Investigators said they were still looking at “persons of interest.”
“We have appreciated the many members of the community who have been coming forward with information. We also appreciate your continued patience as we investigate this difficult tragedy that occurred in our community,” the sheriff's office said Monday.
Willie’s Bar serves Gullah-inspired cuisine and describes itself on its website as “not just a restaurant but a community pillar committed to giving back, especially to our youth.”
An estimated 5,000 or more Gullah people living on the island trace their ancestry back to enslaved West Africans who once worked rice plantations in the area before being freed by the Civil War.
It’s hard “to have your name on the door and not feel the weight of what’s happening,” bar owner Willie Turral told WCSC-TV.
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This story has been updated to correct the first name of Chiraad Smalls, not Sherrod, the coroner's office said.