Man arrested after 9-hour standoff in Murrells Inlet

MURRELLS INLET -- Police blocked off a street in a Murrells Inlet neighborhood for more than nine hours Wednesday after a man refused to leave his home when officers responded to a domestic violence related call.

A standoff between the suspect, Sean Roy Johnson, and police began just before 2 p.m. Wednesday and was arrested just before midnight, according to Lt. Neil Johnson of the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office.

Sean Johnson, 50, was arrested and is being held at the Georgetown County Jail, Neil Johnson said. Warrants are pending and no bond hearing has been scheduled, he said.

Sean Johnson was in the home for over nine hours, then ran into the woods before being arrested by officers, police said.

Police responded to a call in the 4300 block of Goude Street on Wednesday after Sean Johnson's girlfriend called police and said he pointed a handgun at her, police said.

Police said the woman who was inside the home was outside when police arrived and didn't appear injured. She told officers that the suspect was waiting on the front porch.

The suspect remained inside and would not come out, police said.

Police learned that the man might have access to guns inside the home, so officers blocked off the dead-end street.

Officers approached the house, but found that Sean Johnson was not on the front porch. Sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter around the home and blocked off Goude Street while for the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team and negotiators talked to Sean Johnson.

After more than nine hours of negotiations, Johnson briefly escaped by leaving the back of the home. He was later captured by deputies. He was unarmed at the time of his arrest.

One resident on the street, Patti Springfield, said she noticed a police car at a home two doors away in what she called a normally quiet neighborhood. Soon afterward she said an officer was at her house. "He said we just got an altercation up the street, and we want you to stay in the house until we come back and let you know it's OK to come out. It scared me a little bit."

Springfield said she and other neighbors who were at home at the time were asked to stay inside their homes. Those who were not home when the standoff began were kept off that section of Goude Street, some until as late at 10 p.m.

Springfield said her next door neighbor was among them, and like several others, her neighbor waited out the incident at a neighbor's home nearby.

Cay Shuping said she left home at around 2:30 and returned around 3:30 to find her porch crowded with her neighbors. Her husband was home at the time.

She said the crowd came and went throughout the day, but as many as six neighbors were at her house at one time, she said.

"It was no problem,'' she said. "We have a big porch. When the skeeters started biting, we came in."