COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Authorities have charged a man with murder in a mass shooting that killed four people and injured 15 more last month at a bar on a South Carolina island.
Anferny Freeman, 27, was already in jail on a charge of possessing a machine gun when investigators served arrest warrants on him Friday, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.
About 350 people were at a 25th high school reunion party in the early morning of Oct. 12 when gunfire broke out at Willie’s Bar and Grill on St. Helena Island, deputies said.
Freeman and a man who ended up being killed in the shooting had an encounter “that was not very friendly” and started shooting at each other, Tanner said.
Freeman was shot in the stomach and driven to the hospital, the sheriff said.
Investigators have determined through bullets, shell casings, videos and interviews that there was a third person shooting too, said the sheriff, who expects more arrests.
“I expect more charges to be made. We have not forgotten about the other 15 victims,” Tanner said.
A judge denied bond for Freeman on the four murder charges. Jail and court records did not list a lawyer representing him.
The shooting happened near last call for drinks at a party celebrating the 25th anniversary of the class of 2000 at Battery Creek High School in Beaufort. Tanner said the shooters were firing indiscriminately.
In a news conference several days after the shooting, Tanner said he was frustrated that none of the people at the party were identifying the shooter. He said Friday that they did finally get witnesses to talk and help them make their case.
The sheriff would not say who shot first, what kinds of weapons were used, how Freeman got his gun or how many other people might be charged.
“How all that happened is for a courtroom and not here,” Tanner said.
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 St. Helena Island trace their ancestry back to enslaved West Africans who once worked rice plantations in the area before being eventually freed by the Civil War.
Someone affiliated with the business was at Tanner’s news conference Friday and asked him several questions about why the sheriff was trying to get the bar declared a nuisance and closed.
Tanner said deputies have been called out to the business hundreds of times and it is too dangerous to the community to keep its alcohol license.
“The bottom line is we are going to put you out of business,” the sheriff said.
By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press
