Officer arrested, restaurant fire. 7 stories along Grand Strand you may have missed
Major news rippled across the Grand Strand on Tuesday, from a Myrtle Beach police officer’s arrest to a drug trafficker’s guilty plea.
Here’s a roundup of the top headlines along the South Carolina coast.
- A Myrtle Beach Police detective, Michael Debiase, 46, was arrested by SLED and charged with pointing a firearm at a fellow officer during a May 30 confrontation over warming up fish in a microwave; he has since been separated from the department.
- Flynn’s Irish Tavern on Main Street in North Myrtle Beach closed Tuesday after a small electrical fire on Monday, with no injuries reported and the restaurant expected to reopen Wednesday.
- An angler accidentally hooked an endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle at Myrtle Beach State Park’s fishing pier last week — only nine Kemp’s ridley nests have been reported in South Carolina, and rangers urge anglers to call for help rather than cut the line or remove hooks themselves.
- Horry County’s new ordinance cracks down on e-bikes without pedals on roads with speed limits over 20 mph, sidewalks and county property, but exempts mobility scooters, wheelchairs, standing e-scooters, mopeds, golf carts and pedal-assist e-bikes.
- Rafael Contreras Ramos, 40, a leader of a Mexican drug trafficking organization, pleaded guilty Tuesday to supplying cocaine, fentanyl and heroin in Horry County, with his network moving more than 40 kilograms of cocaine and collecting over $5 million from 2016 to 2022.
- Myrtle Beach High School was briefly placed on “hold” status Tuesday morning after a threatening phone call from an out-of-state number; all students and staff were safe, and other Myrtle Beach cluster schools were placed on “secure” status as a precaution.
- James Turbeville, a 38-year-old Darlington man, was arrested at House of Blues and charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor after allegedly assaulting a 13-year-old boy on Saturday night; officers already on site noted he appeared visibly intoxicated.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
Terri Richardson
The Sun News