SLED identifies Myrtle Beach shooting victim and officers
The State Law Enforcement Division released a statement Friday identifying the people involved in a shooting a day earlier, where police shot and injured a man when officers tried to serve a search warrant and arrest warrants.
The injured man is Julian Ray Betton, 30, who the agency said is black. The officers involved were with the 15th Judicial Circuit DEU, and all are white, according SLED.
Officers with DEU 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. Betton was taken to Grand Strand Medical Center, police said.
Jimmy Richardson, 15th Circuit Solicitor, said officers were fired upon when serving the warrant, so an officer returned fire.
An officer used a police radio to report to dispatchers that shots were fired. No police officer was injured, Crosby said. Three people were in custody shortly after the shooting, Crosby said, but none of those arrests were related to the shooting.
The SLED statement said there is no body or dash camera video footage of the incident.
The shooting, which happened around 3 p.m., occurred inside one of the condo units.
The DEU is comprised officers from various agencies. The officers involved in Thursday’s shooting were Frank Waddell of Coastal Carolina University Police Department; Chris Dennis from Horry County Sheriff’s Office, and Officer David Belue from Myrtle Beach police.
Lt. Joey Crosby, Myrtle Beach police public information officer, said Belue is a Patrolman First Class assigned to the 15th Judicial Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit. Belue has been employed with the Myrtle Beach Police Department since 2007 and has been placed on modified duty, Crosby said.
Information from the investigation will be submitted to prosecutors for review and “determination of what, if any, criminal charges that may be filed,” the release from SLED said.
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.
Thursday’s incident is the 14th officer-involved shooting in S.C. in 2015 and the first this year by an agent with the 15th Judicial Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit officer, according to SLED.
In 2014, there were 42 officer-involved shootings in the state, but none involved an area DEU officer, SLED said.
This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 3:23 PM with the headline "SLED identifies Myrtle Beach shooting victim and officers."