Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Shooting on Hilton Head Island

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting on Hilton Head Island that left two men injured.

Tuesday night in Muddy Creek Road near Bryant Road, an incident occurred. Although authorities didn’t provide much information about the victims, both were in stable condition after being transported to Savannah’s Memorial Hospital by emergency medical services.

On the same day, an elementary school security guard at Mossy Oaks Elementary School in Beaufort was dismissed after being accused of leaving a gun unattended in a staff bathroom for three minutes. It was eventually discovered by a teacher who reported it to the principal.

On Saturday afternoon, a man who was trying to stop a group of kids from breaking into a car at Lowcountry Celebration Park was shot multiple times and severely wounded, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators believe that the victim — who has yet to be identified — was trying to prevent one of five boys whose ages weren’t provided by authorities from trying to break in.

Sheriff Roper reported the incident as an apparent act of self-preservation. The victim is in fair condition but may require surgery and other forms of treatment, he added.

The doctor’s family confirmed to The Island Packet that the woman who attempted to murder him was a Bluffton resident who had been dating him intermittently since 2010. Witnesses saw her fire four or five shots into the 60-year-old physician before turning the gun on herself.

Prosecutors presented evidence that John Ira Duncan III, now 19, had been plotting to kill Williams for weeks prior to the July 19 attack in Coligny Circle. Two days after the incident, Duncan turned himself in to investigators.

On Thursday, a general sessions court jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Juries heard from 16 witnesses who recounted the violence that had ensued between the two men – both former students at Hilton Head Island High School.

At trial, Duncan testified that Williams should have been executed for what he did to his sister. They had been engaged in an argument over a parking space and an old motorcycle they kept at their apartment.

Duncan reported being threatened by Williams and his mother. Additionally, witnesses reported seeing Duncan looking at Williams’ car in the parking lot of a local strip club before it was fatally struck.