One woman is dead and two men hospitalized with gunshot wounds after an armed robbery and murder at the Tiger Express Convenience Store at 15149 Carolina Highway in Olar Monday night at approximately 10:00 p.m. According to Bamberg Coroner Willard “Billy” Duncan, Alicia M. Dyches, 19 of 357 Beech Road in Olar, died instantly from a gunshot wound and her body was sent to the Medical University of South Carolina for an autopsy.

Bamberg County Sheriff Ed Darnell identified the other two shooting victims as Dwight James Williams 53 of 14889 Low Country Road Olar and Kenneth Utz 17 of 4311 Reedy Branch Road.

Darnell stated that both men were transported by EMS to a landing site in Govan and Kenneth Utz was airlifted to Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia and Dwight James Williams was airlifted to MCG in Augusta Georgia. According to Darnell at last report earlier this morning both men were in stable condition.

The Sheriff stated that a person of “great interest” is in custody at this time in the Bamberg County Detention Center and the name is being withheld until a warrant is prepared. Darnell said a weapon has been recovered and some of the money recovered from the store.

Downright meanness, a 19-year old working in the convenience store and for someone to come in and take a life just doesn’t make sense at all. Sheriff Darnell said he received a lot of help from the Department of Natural Resources Officers who assisted the Bamberg Sheriff’s Department and he could not say enough about the Govan Fire Department and First Responders who were on the scene and assisted.

“We don’t give our volunteers enough credit for what they do, nothing but professionals, when I see them on the scene,” Sheriff Darnell said. Darnell noted that this was the first murder in Bamberg County this year with only one last year in December. “ I thought we had gotten through the year,” Darnell said.