The 88-year old owner of a Church Street candy store died in a Thursday afternoon shooting at this business, Bamberg County Coroner Willard Duncan said.

 

“Alfred E. Myers, the owner of a candy shop at the corner of Church and Voorhees streets, died en route to the hospital,” Duncan said. “An autopsy was done in Charleston but the body has not yet been released to the funeral home. Officers with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Bamberg County Sheriff’s Department assisted with the initial investigation.”

 

Denmark Police Chief Leroy Grimes, who first notified the State Law Enforcement Division following the incident, referred all public and media inquiries regarding the case to SLED.

 

SLED communications director Jennifer Timmons said there have been no arrests yet.

 

“SLED is currently taking the lead in the investigation of a Denmark shop owner, and our agents are actively following leads in this case,” Timmons said. “We send a canine trace team and a crime scene unit to process the site following the shooting.”

 

Timmons confirmed the shooting occurred at the business, known as Alfred Myers Store.

When reached by phone at her home, Myers’ wife, Jessie, said she has no idea why the shooting occurred.

 

“The police haven’t told me anything except that they haven’t caught anyone and there were no witnesses and no one heard nothing,” Myers said. “Alfred ran the store after he came down from New York in the ‘70s, and his father ran it for a long time before him.”

 

Denmark Mayor Carrie Simmons said she remembers Myers as being a quiet man whose business was popular with students.

 

“I used to stop there when I was in high school and college for little things like peanuts and candy like that,” Simmons said. “I knew his father, and I believe his mother used to work at (Voorhees) college in the laundry room.”

 

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5540.

 

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