Officer-involved shooting in Myrtle Beach injures civilian

South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents are investigating an officer-involved shooting that happened Thursday in a Myrtle Beach condo building and left one person injured.

Police said officers with the 15th Judicial Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit were executing a search and arrest warrant related to narcotics at 602 Withers Swash Drive when the shooting happened, involving a in one of the building’s four units.

Police said one person was taken to Grand Strand Medical Center, who was in surgery late Thursday.

“Last I heard he was alive,” said Jimmy Richardson, 15th Circuit solicitor. “I don’t know how good of a shape he’s in.”

Richardson said officers were fired upon when serving the warrant, so an officer returned fire. DEU officers come from different agencies in Horry and Georgetown counties, but Richardson did not specify which agency the officer belonged to or if the officer was wearing a body camera, because he wanted to wait until SLED finished investigating to divulge more information.

An officer used a police radio to report to dispatchers that shots were fired. No police officer was injured, according to Lt. Joey Crosby, spokesman for the Myrtle Beach Police Department. Three people were in custody shortly after the shooting, Crosby said, but none of those arrests were related to the shooting.

The shooting, which happened around 3 p.m., occurred inside one of the condo units.

According to police and witnesses, the shooting happened in a lower-level condo unit.

Bethany Stokes, who was in an upper level unit, said “I heard two shots, then it sounded like a machine gun.”

She said she grabbed her dogs and ran into the bedroom.

“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” she said.

SLED investigates all officer-involved shootings, Richardson said.

The shooting happens at a time when there’s increased national focus on officer-involved shootings after a bystander shot a video of North Charleston police officer Michael Slager shooting and killing Walter Scott after a traffic stop on April 4.

The video – released three days later – contradicted Slager’s claim that Scott had taken his stun gun, leading authorities to charge the officer with murder.

South Carolina lawmakers are preparing to tackle bills that would require all police officers statewide to wear clip-on body cameras, which has the support from top political officials, including Gov. Nikki Haley, and state police and legal groups, including the S.C. Law Enforcement Officers' Association, S.C. Sheriffs’ Association and S.C. Bar.

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Officer-involved shooting in Myrtle Beach injures civilian."