Families: Soldiers shot at bar were driven to protect others

The two soldiers who died this week being Good Samaritans were wired to step in and protect others, relatives said Thursday.

Sgt. 1st Class Jonathon Prins has been a rescuer to his sister Courtney Jernigan since her teens, said Jernigan, who is a year younger than her 29-year-old brother. They grew up in North Carolina.

When she was 13 and visiting a friend’s house someone stabbed her in the face with a fork, Jernigan said. Prins rushed to help. That was tipping point in their relationship after their early years when she said they were not all that close.

“We always knew that there was going to come a day that Jonathon was going to get involved in something like this,” said Jernigan, who had become listed as her brother’s emergency contact. “And I knew that was how he was going to go.”

Prins was gunned down at a Lake Murray restaurant Sunday after he and Sgt. 1st Class Charles Judge Jr. stepped in when a gunman threatened a crowd at the Frayed Knot Bar & Grill in Chapin.

Jernigan praised her brother and his friend Judge – who on Wednesday was promoted posthumously by the S.C. National Guard from staff sergeant to sergeant first class.

“That’s what they’re meant for, to protect us, to protect our country,” Jernigan said. “Both of these men, they died doing just that.”

The military gave her brother a chance to get his life together, she said. Prins dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, but got his GED before joining the Army.

She didn’t like her brother’s decision to enlist because she had seen how much time their father, a Navy man, spent away from home. But she was proud of her brother anyway.

Prins’ mother, Lesa Dennis, echoed that pride. Dennis said he was mapping out his military career with the goal of landing at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C. to be close to family.

“I told him all the time I was proud of him,” Dennis said. “But when it really sunk in what he did, I have never been more proud of my boy.”

The last time Jernigan talked with her brother was three days before he died. “I’m kind of pregnant at this time, and my due date is in August, and we were discussing his baby gift for me,” she said.

Prins, who has three children of his own, was going to get his newest niece a Minnie Mouse crib.

Judge, a 40-year-old father of two was a family man, too. His cousin, Robert Smith, 47, said the two grew up together in New Jersey.

Smith’s mother and Judge’s mother are sisters, Smith said. The families moved to South Carolina around the time Judge was in high school.

At family reunions, the two boys frequently saw family members who were in the military. Smith said his cousin grew up with a respect for military service, seeing those relatives as role models.

“Taking up causes for other people that were wronged or less fortunate ... he was a voice for people like that as well,” Smith said.

Sgt. Kyle Caldwell, who met Judge when the two worked together in the S.C. National Guard, said he wasn’t surprised at his friend’s actions.

“I think if things were reversed, he’d probably do it again,” Caldwell said.

The man who was charged with two counts of murder in the shooting investigation is Joseph Elijah Mills of Little Mountain. A judge refused to grant him bond at a hearing in Lexington County on Monday.

Video footage of the shooting showed the gunman chasing and beating a woman, bar owner Justin Brooks said. After several people pulled the suspect off the woman, he pulled a gun and fired into the air, Brooks said.

At that point, the two soldiers arrived – trying to defuse the tense situation – and the gunman shot them, Brooks said.

Mills told Judge Arthur Myers during his bond hearing that he was chasing a woman who had taken drugs off a seat and ran. He also said he didn’t understand the charges against him.

The shooting isn’t the first time Mills has gotten into trouble with Lexington County deputies.

He was charged with criminal domestic violence in November 2014, court records show. He later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and battery. An incident report from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said that Mills’ girlfriend told law enforcement he threw her to the ground, straddled her and “was applying pressure to her neck as if he was attempting to locate a pressure point.”

Mills told law enforcement that he was holding his girlfriend down because she was trying to harm herself, according to the report.

Mills is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 9 in the shooting at the Frayed Knot.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Families: Soldiers shot at bar were driven to protect others."