North Charleston shooting victim determined to make a difference

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – One of four people shot in a North Charleston neighborhood over the weekend is sharing her story about the traumatic event and remains determined to make a difference in her community.

Authorities responded to an area of South Allen Drive on Saturday afternoon in the Dorchester Terrace neighborhood where four people had been shot. One of those victims died, two have since been released from the hospital, while another is still receiving treatment.

Among those injured was Joyce Maybin Nesmith, a community leader who founded the non-profit Beyond Our Walls, an organization that offers a safe, nurturing place for children seeking assistance with academics, behavior, and social skills.

“While I was sitting in the desk area in front of the window I all of a sudden got this sting across my head and then I heard the ‘bang, bang, bang’, at that time I realized someone was shooting,” Joyce Maybin Nesmith recalled.

A stray bullet skimmed Nesmith’s skull while she was inside her nonprofit, Beyond Our Walls.

“I just got out of harm’s way and started to call the police and tried to see if I could get some help because I didn’t know how extensive my injuries were at the time,” Nesmith said.

Nesmith was treated at the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital before being released.

Although she is a shooting victim, she doesn’t have a victim’s mentality. She says now her nonprofit is more dedicated than ever to helping children in the North Charleston community succeed.

“That’s one of my goals,” Nesmith said. “To figure how do we as a community come together and surround ourselves around the young children that are growing up in our community to give them the hope that they need to be able to make better choices for their lives.”

Nesmith said she is not afraid to go back into the community because she knows several children are counting on her.

“As I sit here,” she said. “I say to myself we can’t not (sic) be in that community for those kids who come to us every day. I think of the names of the children and I’m saying there’s no way I can turn my back on them and say that I’m not going back down there. So, I have to go back.”

Beyond Our Walls has served the North Charleston community for eight years and Nesmith says they don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

“I’m just hoping that if nothing else, the blood that I’ve left on the streets over there in that community, that we can take this as an opportunity for us to look at ways where we can start looking at building something different,” she said. “Building an infrastructure in the neighborhoods where every neighborhood has a place children can go that’s safe.”

Nesmith said she doesn’t want to dwell on this incident and is already looking forward to hosting many more programs for children at the Beyond Our Walls activity center.

No arrests have been made in connection to the shooting. Police have not released any suspect information as of Monday morning. Count on 2 for the latest.