Fort Mill community, educators remember teen killed in Oconee car crash

The Fort Mill community is grieving the loss of one of its own.

Dalton Evans, 18, was killed Thursday in a crash in Oconee County. The crash was reported at 10:56 p.m. on Shiloh Road east of Seneca, near Clay Drive.

Evans died at the scene and a passenger was injured and airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Evans, who graduated from Fort Mill High School in May, was a student at Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton.

Steve Godfrey, a neighbor and friend of the Evans family, said Dalton was respectful and hard-working.

“He was a nice kid,” Godfrey said.

Godfrey said Evans loved the outdoors, and that he often went hunting and fishing with his father.

“His father and him spent a lot of time together doing things they both enjoyed,” Godfrey said. “He was raised in a good home.”

Fort Mill High Principal Dee Christopher said Evans and his family, all native to Fort Mill, are a big part of the community. He said students, teachers and staff at Fort Mill High and across the district are “heartbroken” at losing Evans.

Evan’s brother is a tenth-grader at Fort Mill High School, Christopher said.

“It’s been a difficult weekend for a number of graduates and students,” Christopher said. “Our school, even as big as it is, feels small. There is a lot of family atmosphere around our school and around our town.”

Fort Mill High School teacher Kari Cooper, who had Evans in her English class for two years, said he was one to talk to everybody, no matter who they were.

“He was a great kid,” she said. “He truly treated everyone equally.”

Cooper said Evans enjoyed his friends, the outdoors and his yellow Jeep. She said he was an honest young man who liked to make people laugh.

“If you think of the stereotypical good old country boy, that was Dalton,” Cooper said. “Everybody liked him and respected him. You would never hear a bad thing about Dalton Evans.”

Christopher said many people in the Fort Mill community have visited Evans’ family and are offering support.

“We can comfort one another, and we can love on each other during difficult times,” Christopher said.

This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Fort Mill community, educators remember teen killed in Oconee car crash."