Who has more fatal police shootings, Jersey Shore or Myrtle Beach? What we know
The Jersey Shore and the Grand Strand have both had fatal police-involved shootings in the past five years.
Data from law enforcement shows that the communities that make up the Jersey Shore have had more fatal officer-involved shootings in the past five years compared to Myrtle Beach.
In an email to The Sun News, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General said out of four counties that touch either the Atlantic Ocean or Raritan Bay that make up the Shore — Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May counties — there have been five fatal officer-involved shootings over the past five years.
- Ventor on Aug. 6, 2020
- Asbury Park on Aug. 21, 2020
Long Branch on Nov. 6, 2021
Keansburg on Jan. 6, 2022
Keansburg on May 27, 2024
In 2025, Myrtle Beach had its first officer-involved shooting near the downtown boardwalk, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division press release. In 2024, the city did not have any officer-involved shootings that were investigated by SLED.
The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit online database that documents gun-related violence, defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are killed or injured. Under that definition, the April incident on North Ocean Boulevard would be considered the seventh mass shooting in Myrtle Beach since 2014, according to previous reporting.
An online database of past press releases does not show SLED investigating any other Myrtle Beach Police Department officer-involved shootings from 2021 to 2025.
According to a release at the time, in 2024 there was one fatal officer-involved shooting with the Horry County Police Department.
In 2023, there were 43 officer-involved shootings in South Carolina, SLED data shows. The Horry County Police Department had 1 officer-involved shooting that year.
This comparison comes after a police shooting in downtown Myrtle Beach that left 18-year-old Jerrius Davis dead and 11 others with unspecified injuries.
SLED said their investigation into the incident remains open and ongoing.
