On a late spring evening, a social gathering on Saint Helena Island took a tragic turn, ending in the death of 30-year-old Anthony Rivers Jr. The male victim was outside a residence on Keystone Drive on May 29, 2021, when he was shot. Emergency services transported him to Beaufort Memorial Hospital, but he ultimately succumbed to his injuries. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office immediately launched a homicide investigation into the shooting.
The investigation led authorities to a
suspect, Stephan Quinton Polite, the 31-year-old cousin of the victim. On June 21, 2021, investigators with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office arrested Polite at a residence on Saint Helena Island without incident. He was subsequently charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Witnesses at the gathering, which was described as a community card game, stated that Rivers had arrived intoxicated, and an argument broke out between him and Polite.
The conflict escalated when Polite retrieved a gun from his vehicle. He then pistol-whipped Rivers twice in the head before shooting him in the chest as he was driving away. In April 2024, a Beaufort County jury found Stephan Quinton Polite guilty of the murder of his cousin. Following the three-day trial, a Circuit Court Judge sentenced Polite to 30 years in prison for the murder charge and an additional 5 years for the weapons charge, with the sentences to be served concurrently.
