One year later: Family mourns Berkeley County man killed in crash

17/01/2024

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A family is remembering a Pineville man one year ago to the day that he was killed in a car crash in Bonneau.

Thirty-five-year-old Sharnell Pressley died in the crash on Black Oak Road on Jan.

16, 2023. Members of Pressley’s family met in Moncks Corner on Tuesday and say they think about Pressley all day, every day. They say he brought lots of joy to everyone around him.

Pressley was driving a 2023 Kia when he struck a tree.

The crash left the car engulfed by flames.

“I’m standing here on behalf of Sharnell, my son. He was my oldest son,” Pressley’s mother, Genese Mustapher, says. “I just left him about three hours before and the last thing he told me, he said, ‘Mom, go ahead and get something to eat. I’ll see you when you come back.'”

The Berkeley County Coroner’s Office did not identify his body to the press until Tuesday because of the extensive burns and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division having to step in to positively identify the body.

“We cry every day, all day.

All we can think about is him because all we need is that smile to make us feel better, and we don’t even have that anymore,” Pressley’s high school sweetheart, Erica Dangerfield, says.

The family says they are still looking for answers surrounding how the investigation was handled.

“This is, this is very painful for me. This is very unbelievable. This is devastating.

This is this sad,” Mustapher says. “I believe this was very intentional. Why didn’t they get him out of the car? They should have gotten him out of the car.”

The South Carolina Highwya Patrol has not yet provided a copy of the full investigative report requested through the Freedom of Information Act.