Hardeeville police booked Joshua Ferguson and Cleve White on murder warrants in the shooting death of Travis Brown.

A murder warrant is the accusation detectives wrote down after a Friday night shooting. It is not a conviction. WSAV reported Jasper County Sheriff Chris Malphrus called the killing of Travis Brown premeditated, and Hardeeville Chief Sam Woodward said more arrests are expected. An expected arrest is not a filed count, and a sheriff's theory of the shooting is not a jury finding.

WSAV, WTOC, and WJCL reported that Hardeeville police and the Jasper County Sheriff's Office held a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Ridgeland on the shooting death of Travis Brown, 18. WJCL, citing the Jasper County Coroner's Office, reported Brown was shot about 10:10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, near Bus Loop Road and Red Dam Road, beside Hardeeville High School and the elementary school, and that he was pronounced dead at Coastal Carolina Hospital. WTOC reported Chief Sam Woodward said the people believed to be involved were not current students and that there is no indication the shooting was connected to school activities, even though it happened near the schools. A death at a hospital and a chief's statement that a shooting was not a school event are what those outlets reported. They are not a verdict.

WSAV reported Woodward said three people were arrested in the killing, and that Sheriff Chris Malphrus said investigators believe the shooting was premeditated. WTOC and WJCL reported detectives obtained arrest warrants charging Joshua Elliot Ferguson and Cleve Rudolph White with murder and with possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. WTOC reported that about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Hardeeville officers found Ferguson and Leiya Aubre Watson in Hardeeville and took both into custody, and that Ferguson was carrying an AR-style rifle and was arrested without incident. WJCL spelled Ferguson's first name Josuah in one line. WTOC and WSAV spelled it Joshua. The warrant name is what the court file will use. A rifle at an arrest is a fact police described. It is not proof of who fired on Friday. WTOC reported Ferguson is 21 and from Ridgeland, White is 21 and from Hardeeville, and Watson is 19 and from Beaufort. It reported deputies later arrested White at a home off Cooks Landing Road in Levy on the Hardeeville warrants, and that Ferguson and White were taken to the Jasper County Detention Center. WJCL reported a search of a Ridgeland house police say Ferguson used turned up items investigators called potential evidence. WSAV reported Watson was charged with accessory after the fact to murder. WJCL reported the department's written account did not specify a charge for her. An accessory count one station attributes to the chief, and a write-up that leaves her charge blank, are both pretrial. Neither is a conviction.

WSAV reported Woodward said more arrests are expected, and that Malphrus said three later shootings in the county, on Oct. 3, Oct. 4, and Oct. 5, followed the homicide. WSAV reported those later scenes involved property damage and that no one was hurt in them. Malphrus said, "Let law enforcement do their job," and, "There's been enough bloodshed; there's been enough tragedy and there's been enough death." A sheriff's warning about later gunfire is context for the investigation. It does not add a count to the murder warrants, and a promise of more arrests is not a new defendant. Woodward said a motive has not been confirmed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.