On a Saturday afternoon in mid-October of 2021, the quiet of Lady's Island in Beaufort, South Carolina, was broken by a fatal shooting. Inside a residence on Brickyard Point Road North, 47-year-old Laventis Cohen of St. Helena Island was found deceased by Beaufort County Sheriff's Office deputies who were responding to reports of gunfire on October 16th.
An autopsy later confirmed that the male victim had died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The initial investigation quickly focused on two individuals. At the scene, deputies interviewed 29-year-old Brittany Smalls, who lived at the home where the shooting occurred. Her account of the events led investigators to identify a second person of interest, 21-year-old William Johnson III, also of St. Helena Island. As the investigation progressed, evidence suggested that Johnson had fled to Augusta, Georgia, following the shooting. It was also discovered that he was wanted in Georgia on unrelated assault charges.
Within a week of Cohen's death, arrests were made. On October 22, 2021, William Johnson III was apprehended in Augusta, Georgia, by the Richmond County Sheriff's Office and the United States Marshals Service. That same day, Brittany Smalls was taken into custody on St. Helena Island. Both Johnson and Smalls were charged with murder, obstruction of justice, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Johnson was initially held in Georgia awaiting extradition, while Smalls was booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center.
Nearly a year later, in September 2022, the investigation led to a third arrest. Josephine Seabrook, 35, of St. Helena, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder. Authorities alleged that Seabrook drove Johnson from the scene of the shooting to Augusta, Georgia. Officials indicated that the shooting was related to a domestic situation.
