In the quiet community of Seabrook, South Carolina, the life of 18-year-old William Kareem Major was tragically cut short in early January 2015. The young man was discovered in his SUV, parked in the lot of the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church on Keans Neck Road, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his torso. Investigators pieced together his final moments, believing he was shot at a different location on Kinloch Road and had attempted to drive away before succumbing to his injuries and
pulling over at the church. A graduate of Battery Creek High School in 2014, his sudden and violent death sent ripples of shock and grief through the local community.
The investigation into the death of the Dale-area teen initially faced some uncertainty, with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office at one point naming a different teenager as a suspect before retracting that statement. However, their focus soon shifted to another local youth. Within days of the discovery of Major's body, a 17-year-old named Geoni Najee Clark was arrested and charged with the murder. It was determined that the path Major took in his final moments would have led him directly past Clark's home on Keans Neck Road. Clark had a previous criminal record, having been charged as an adult in 2013 with armed robbery and assault by a mob, though those charges were later handled in family court.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a measure of closure to the case. Geoni Najee Clark, the Beaufort County teenager accused of the crime, ultimately pleaded guilty to the charge of voluntary manslaughter. In June 2016, a circuit court judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison for his role in the fatal shooting of William Kareem Major. This conviction marked the conclusion of the official investigation into a life ended far too soon, leaving a family and a community to mourn their loss.
