Updated: NC woman sues North Myrtle Beach businessman in roadside shooting death of brother
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Scott Spivey
The North Carolina man was killed in shoot out along a South Carolina rural highway. Nearly two years after, his death is getting a new investigation.
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The sister of a North Carolina man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a North Myrtle Beach business owner and another man accused of killing him during a roadside shootout.
No charges have been filed in the death of Scott Spivey, 33, of Tabor City, who was killed in an exchange of gunfire off of S.C. 9 Sept. 9, 2023.
Jennifer Foley filed the lawsuit on Monday, June 3. Foley referred comments to her attorney.
“I think there’s a lot of problems with the evidence,” said Mark Tinsley, the Spivey family’s attorney.
Tinsley said it doesn’t make sense that if someone decides to chase that person and then shoot them, that “it’s me standing my ground.”
Tinsley said most likely Boyd got his feelings hurt through some traffic road rage, but it “didn’t warrant chasing and shooting Scott Spivey.”
“It’s exclusively about the justice,” for Scott Spivey, Tinsley said about the lawsuit. “(The family) is never going to get ... (Boyd) doesn’t have enough money ... to make up for that loss (of Spivey).”
Horry County Police closed the case in April, announcing they would not seek prosecution in Spivey’s shooting. The decision follows the state Attorney General Office’s report that it, too, has closed the case, concluding “insufficient evidence to merit criminal prosecution” in the deadly exchange of gunfire that killed Scott Spivey.
Weldon Boyd, who operates Buoys on the Boulevard along South Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach, was named as one of the alleged shooters in the fatal accident. A second man, Kenneth Williams, who also lives in Horry County, is also named in the suit.
Boyd declined to comment on Tuesday. A number for Williams could not be found.
“It’s frustrating that once again Mr. Boyd is the subject of a false narrative,” said Boyd’s attorney, Kenneth Moss. “This lawsuit is baseless.”
Moss said that Foley, Spivey’s sister, knows the facts in the case and “it will come out in due course.”
“This is too little too late,” Moss said. “There was a time (the family) could have intervened but not now.”
This is the first time the second shooter’s name has been publicly released.
The suit claims that Spivey also had a reasonable ground to be in fear as the defendants aggressively chased him, brandished their weapons and eventually killed him.
Five 911 calls released by Horry County Police through a Freedom of Information Act request detail the moments when Spivey was shot and killed during the exchange of gunfire. One of those calls was allegedly from Boyd, who identifies himself as driving a white Ram pickup truck. The caller says, “I’ve got a guy pointing a gun at me driving. We’re armed as well. He keeps throwing the gun in our faces, acting like he’s about to shoot us. If he keeps this up, I am going to shoot him.”
What the suit says
The suit, filed June 3, 2024, said that it is believed that some altercation occurred between Spivey and Boyd while driving near Highway 57 and Highway 9 in Little River, causing Boyd to be “enraged” and begin to pursue Spivey. At times, Boyd drives his vehicle dangerously close to the rear of Spivey’s vehicle, the suit said.
Spivey attempted to “brake check” Boyd to discourage the pursuit and Boyd’s dangerously close distance. Boyd, along with Williams, then began, without an imminent threat to their persons or anyone else, to unlawfully pursue Spivey even more vigorously, the suit said.
At approximately 5:54 p.m., Boyd calls 911 and tells the dispatcher, “if I see the gun again, I’m going to take him/the mother f***** down/out. He’s speeding up. Trying to getaway from me,” the suit said.
Instead of discontinuing their pursuit of Spivey or waiting for law enforcement to intervene, Boyd and Williams continued to chase Spivey along Highway 9 into the Longs area for an extended length of time, the suit said.
After an extended unlawful pursuit, Spivey turned on Camp Swamp Road while Boyd and Williams followed him, relaying this information to the 911 operator, the suit said.
Spivey stopped his vehicle and screamed at Boyd, “Why the f*** are you following me? Leave me the f*** alone!” Boyd and Williams started shooting at Spivey, killing him in a hail of gunfire, the suit said.
Boyd is accused in the suit of operating his vehicle dangerously and unsafe, instigating a pursuit, failing to stop the pursuit once law enforcement was notified and brandishing a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
Williams is accused in the suit of instigating the pursuit, encouraging Boyd to give chase, and willingly being an active participant in the shooting and death of Spivey.
The suit is asking for a jury trial.
What happened in the shooting
Horry County Police have said that Spivey was killed on Camp Swamp Road in the Longs area.
The family has questioned the investigation, including why police didn’t acquire cell phones that may contain evidence of the two men allegedly involved.
Jennifer Spivey Foley, Spivey’s sister, had previously said that the family has questions about the investigation that they are trying to answer. “I want the truth to come out,” Foley said. “I want justice for my brother.”
The case was turned over to the state Attorney General’s Office for review. However, police have said that it appears the shooting was in self-defense.
Horry County police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division were investigating the shooting. According to Horry County Police spokesperson Mikayla Moskov, SLED was asked to join the investigation.
The Attorney General’s Office was asked to review the case by 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson. Richardson recused himself from the case.
Richardson named Boyd in a letter he sent to the state Attorney General’s Office on Sept. 15 asking for a review of the case after Horry County Police had finished their investigation.
Richardson said that because Boyd posted on Facebook a statement thanking police and the Solicitor’s Office for their hard work, he asked for the review to prevent any issues of impropriety.
Boyd and Williams were allegedly involved in the shooting. It is not clear who fired their weapons and when.
A police report said that the shooting happened on Camp Swamp Road near S.C. 9 in the Longs area. Spivey was shot about 5:50 p.m., according to an email from the Horry County Coroner’s Office Sept. 10. Spivey died on the scene.
The family of Spivey have met with police officials and have heard the five 911 calls, including one from Boyd, that were recorded on the night of the shooting.
According to a police report, the driver of a white Dodge TRX truck told police that “the guy in the black truck jumped out and started shooting at us and I shot back. I think he’s dead.”
The driver said he still had his pistol on him. The officer retrieved it out of his holster, the report said. The passenger of the white truck stated his firearm was on the passenger seat, and the officer also retrieved it.
The driver’s side front door in the Black Chevy pickup was open and the driver was hunched over the center console of the truck, with his right arm hanging over the console into the rear passenger area, the report said. He had no movement. A black handgun with the slide locked back was just under his hand, the report said.
The police report did not say what led to the shooting. There were multiple witnesses.
Based on the family’s personal investigation, the two men had never met before the shooting, and investigators believe that a road rage incident may have started the sequence of events.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 10:46 AM.
