Fallen Myrtle Beach officer recalled as mentor, guardian at bridge dedication

Two weeks after his shift mate Jacob Hancher was killed in the line of duty, Myrtle Beach Police patrolman Cody Kolb made his first traffic stop since the death of his 23-year-old friend.

“After he was killed, I lost my inner fire to do this job. A fire that burned inside me since I was a child. A fire that we shared together,” Kolb said at an Aug. 5 bridge dedication in Hancher’s honor.

The car Kolb had pulled over was last stopped by Hancher three months earlier, the department’s computer showed him.

“I knew at that exact moment that I was back where I was supposed to be, and that it was Jacob pushing me,” Kolb said.

Hancher lost his life on Oct. 3, 2020 while responding to a domestic disturbance along 14th Avenue in downtown Myrtle Beach, returning fire at the suspect even after he was struck multiple times by a 7.62 caliber semiautomatic rifle.

He’d been on the force for just nine months when he became the city’s first officer to die in the line of duty since 2002. His assailant, 20-year-old John Aycoth, was killed during a gun battle with police.

“Our family lost so much when Jacob was taken. We lost a lifetime of memories. We lost future grandkids. Future generations of people in my bloodline named Hancher ended on Oct. 3, 2020,” Hancher’s father Jeff said at the dedication.

The hour-long ceremony on Aug. 5 was the fourth public honoring of Hancher since his slaying. His smiling face is affixed to a marker at the Tom C. Collins Law Enforcement Center. He’s been inducted into the S.C. Law Enforcement Hall of Fame had had his name etched into the National Law Enforcement Wall in Washington, D.C.

The Patrolman Jacob Hancher Overpass straddles the Highway 17 bypass near Coastal Grand Mall, a location that was chosen because of its visibility, Myrtle Beach Police spokesman Master Cpl. Tom Vest said.

But it took an act of the General Assembly to make it happen, since the highway is maintained by the S.C. Department of Transportation.

In May, state Sens. Stephen Goldfinch, Greg Hembree, Luke Rankin and Kent Williams — who all represent portions of Horry County introduced a resolution giving the city permission to name the stretch of highway after Hancher.

“The Patrolman Jacob Hancher Overpass is a reminder to all of us to honor his legacy, and it is a reminder that this world can be tough, but it can be beautiful, it can be challenging, it can be rewarding but it can be absolutely heartbreaking,” Police Chief Amy Prock said at the ceremony.

Originally from Maryland, Hancher’s mother Suzanne Williams said the outpouring of support from her son’s adopted community has been constant.

“A lot has happened over the past couple of years and it is the strength of this community that has gotten our family through,” she said. “Truly, you are the reason that we go on.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2022 at 6:54 PM.