‘Senior skip day’ on Isle of Palms devolves into shooting, leaving 6 injured

ISLE OF PALMS — Police officers have detained several people in connection with an April 7 shooting on the beach that left five teenagers and a woman wounded.

The sound of gunfire peppered the air around 5:30 p.m. after several fights had broken out on Front Beach behind the Sea Cabins condominiums, Sgt. Matthew Storen confirmed. The popular tourist destination sits at the edge of Ocean Boulevard, the city’s main drag dotted with packed bars and restaurants.

Paramedics transported the six victims to Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston with non-life-threatening injuries. One of them, a woman in her mid-30s, was a bystander, Police Chief Kevin Cornett said. 

Storen said 10 police officers were already in the area when the fighting started. They’d learned students at nearby high schools were participating in “senior skip day,” a tradition where most of the class gathers at one location instead of going to school.

Videos posted on social media platforms show a chaotic scene developing next to a pier belonging to Sea Cabins. Hundreds of people stood in a crowd before a series of gunshots rang out, scattering the group.

Nine pops sounded in one video before it cut off as the person filming fled.

In another video, emergency sirens scream in the background as a melee breaks out among about a dozen people. One person is tossed to the ground and kicked in the stomach. Another person throws a haymaker to back of someone’s head. The mob disperses as two police officers run in tackling at least one person to the sand.

A’Nyra Williams, a senior at Manning High school, said she was with friends on 9th Avenue heading toward the beach when the shooting began. A couple of them got lost in the crowd, she said.

Williams was frustrated because “people want to be all quote-unquote ‘cute'” and shoot guns, “which they’re not,” she said.

Almost every law enforcement agency in the Lowcountry descended on the beach community to assist with the investigation, Cornett said. The small city with a population of 4,000 hasn’t seen a shooting like this in the four years Cornett has been police chief, he said.

Police evacuated the beach and shut down inbound traffic for more than an hour on the Isle of Palms connector as they searched for suspects. The nearly 4-mile stretch of road bridging the island and Mount Pleasant piled with traffic before the lanes reopened by 8 p.m.

Officials have not disclosed how many people were detained in connection with the shooting. Police are “still investigating to determine whether they were involved,” according to the city’s Twitter account.

Officers found several guns on the beach, though it’s unclear whether they were used in the shooting, Cornett said.

The April 7 mass shooting marks the second consecutive Easter weekend that a South Carolina community has been rocked by gun violence. More than a dozen bullets fired April 16, 2022, inside Columbia’s crowded Columbiana Centre mall left nine shot and six more injured as shoppers fled.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Isle of Palms, issued a statement via Twitter shortly after the beachside shooting. The lawmaker said she “will not politicize this horrific event” but urged those on both sides of the aisle to work together.

“It makes me sick to see how neither side will sit down together and discuss why gun violence is on the rise and why our policies don’t address root causes,” said Mace, who bought a home on the island last year. “Both sides just dig their heels in, unwilling to have an honest conversation.”

Clad in an official Isle of Palms vest, Mayor Phillip Pounds stood outside the police station following a press briefing. He expected a long night ahead of him.

Pounds, who’s lead the coastal city for the last year and a half, recalled a similar large gathering last summer but noted it did not escalate into gunshots.

“It is a slice of paradise,” Pounds said of his city and its expansive sandy beaches. “You just don’t expect things like that.”

The crime scene was peaceful come nightfall. Waves softly bounced onto the shore. Yellow tape blocked off a section of sand below the pier where investigators walked with police dogs.

Caitlin Bird contributed to this report from Charleston.

Reach Ali Rockett at 843-901-1708. Follow her on Twitter @AliRockettPC.