Woman shot while making night deposit

Erinn McGuire
Hardeeville Today

A fireworks store employee was shot early Tuesday morning by a masked man while trying to make a bank deposit, the Hardeeville Police Department reported.

The 28-year-old woman was attempting to make deposit at South Carolina Bank & Trust on Whyte Hardee Boulevard at about 12:30 a.m., said Assistant Police Chief Steve Murphy.

As she was getting out of a minivan, she noticed an armed man approach her from the back of the building, he said.

“She saw him and tried to get back into the vehicle and as she was getting back in, he fired a shot,” he said.

The bullet went through the driver’s side rear door, into the shoulder harness portion of the seatbelt and struck the woman under the left arm, near her armpit, Murphy said.

The woman, along with two other people in the minivan, sped off and drove to a nearby Sunoco gas station where police were called.

A bloodhound with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and the Hardeeville Police Department’s police dog worked together and tracked west toward Interstate 95 along the railroad tracks for about a quarter mile, Murphy said. They followed the scent into the woods and to some nearby houses, where the trail ended, he said.

Police found a shell casing in the bank’s parking lot and a round was recovered from the minivan, but it wasn’t clear what caliber they were, Murphy said.

The woman was taken to Coastal Carolina Hospital for treatment of a non-life threatening gunshot wound, Murphy said.

The armed gunman was described as wearing dark clothing, a mask and was believed to have been between 5-feet,8 inches and 6-feet tall, weighing 180 about pounds.

Anyone within information about Tuesday’s attempted armed robbery is asked to call the police department at 784-2233.