HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A 19-year-old man has been arrested by authorities in Illinois regarding the shooting incident that occurred over the Memorial Day weekend on a chartered party boat in Little River, which resulted in injuries to 11 individuals.
The Horry County Police Department announced that Shawon Shamarion Williams, 19, was apprehended in Lake County, Illinois. He faces charges of multiple counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
According to Horry County police spokesperson Mikayla Moskov, Williams will be extradited to Horry County. In a Thursday afternoon email news release, Moskov also indicated that additional charges could be brought against others as the investigation progresses.
News13 reached out to Jacklyn Bellamy, one of the organizers of the boat event and Williams’ mother. We asked if she had any comment regarding Williams’ arrest, if she knew he was at the boat event and for what, what he was doing on the boat since he’s under 21, and if Williams was searched before getting on the boat.
“He is innocent, that’s all,” Bellamy told a News13 reporter.
Horry County Police Chief Kris Leonhardt said Tuesday at a news conference that three of the 11 people injured in Sunday’s shooting were still hospitalized. He also said it was an isolated incident that happened while the boat was docked in the Watson Avenue area.
The shooting happened aboard the Hurricane II, which is part of a fleet of charter boats based in Calabash, North Carolina.
According to the Associated Press, a flyer online advertised a party Sunday night with a DJ on a three-hour cruise ending at 9 p.m. A woman who answered a phone number on the flyer early Monday said she was distraught seeing her friends get shot but then said she didn’t want to talk and hung up. Someone who answered the phone at the company that owns the boat said he didn’t want to talk to a reporter.
Randy Evans told a Charleston newspaper that his 25-year-old son was shot in the ankle and toe but managed to use his bathing suit as a makeshift tourniquet to help people who were more severely injured.
“The surgery was better than they expected,” Evans told The Post and Courier after his son didn’t need pins in his foot or ankle. “He’s going to be OK.”
Evans said his son told him that an argument after the boat docked turned ugly.
No additional information was immediately available about Thursday’s arrest. Police encouraged anyone with information or materials relevant to the investigation to reach out to the department’s crime tip line at 843-915-8477 or to email crimetips@horrycountysc.gov
This is a developing story. Count on News13 for updates.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.
