Myrtle Beach faced weekend shooting sprees in the past. Here’s how the city responded.
Multiple shootings over Memorial Day weekend left four injured, one dead, and damaged Myrtle Beach’s reputation, though it’s not the first time the city has faced the problem.
There have been a few instances of the city facing shootings in a particular area, though there was a stark difference with the city’s response to those instances compared to this past weekend.
“We’re gonna send a message to do everything that’s humanly possible to stop this violence in our city,” then-Mayor John Rhodes said in 2017, after a series of shootings over Father’s Day weekend.
“We cannot plan for, or change, the behavior of people,” current Mayor Brenda Bethune said on Tuesday after two shootings on Memorial Day weekend and one about a week earlier, all on Ocean Boulevard.
In 2016 and 2017, the city vowed to do what was necessary to improve downtown, held meetings, changed regulations and offered ideas even in the days immediately following the shootings. That is in contrast to 2020 when city leaders presented a different message.
“We are not going to stop the acts of shooting that take place today,” Councilman Mike Lowder said at a Tuesday city council meeting.
2016 Superblock
The downtown area called the Superblock became known for violent acts in 2015 and 2016. Some of the high-profile incidents included shootings at Club Levelz and Pure Ultra Night Club. City leaders said those events were gang-related.
The Superblock includes Nance Plaza, and is bounded by U.S. 501, Main Street, Broadway Street and Ninth Avenue North. It was home to several bars, and today has been renamed for the Arts & Innovation District.
Following the violence that culminated in 2016, city leaders took actions, such as limiting parking in the area and set a 2 a.m. bar close curfew to try and curb the violence in the area.
“Sometimes there just comes a time when you got to draw the line, and this is the time,” Lowder said in 2017. “We’ve got folks working every day to try and make something else of the Superblock area.”
2017 holiday weekend shootings
In 2017, Ocean Boulevard saw two separate weekends — Easter and Memorial Day — with multiple shootings. In mid-April, seven shootings happened over a five-day span. Then, on Father’s Day weekend, the city had three shootings that injured eight people, including one on Ocean Boulevard and broadcast on Facebook Live.
The video of that shooting went viral.
Days after the Father’s Day weekend, the city called a special public meeting to address the criminal behavior and “proposed solutions.”
At the meeting, attended by the city and other government officials, 18 people spoke about their concerns. Some suggested police were hindered in their work by fear of lawsuits or by direction from commanding officers.
“I hear our community loud and clear,” then-interim Chief Prock said. “We will do what we need to do to get the job done.”
City Manager John Pedersen presented at the meeting some preventive measure that the city could consider to help curb the violence. It included better lighting in downtown, an earlier juvenile curfew and barricades along certain sections of Ocean Boulevard.
The city would also increase its police officer presence along Ocean Boulevard in the months after the shootings.
Gov. Henry McMaster visited Myrtle Beach in the days after the shootings to meet with law enforcement and promised state resources to slow the violence. Though, at that time, there was no worldwide pandemic as there is in 2020.
“Whatever it takes, we’re going to do it all,” McMaster said at that time.
While city officials initially attributed the Father’s Day viral shooting to gang violence, Gov. McMaster downplayed that affiliation.
“We think this was not a gang event, but you always have people, anywhere you find young people, you’re liable to find some that may be associated with a gang somewhere one time or another,” McMaster said in April 2017. “But this is, this began simply as a crowd that got rowdy, got out of control- of course with firearms involved.”
There were six shootings in 2014 over Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach that left three dead.
2020 violence
During Memorial Day weekend in 2020, two shootings erupted on Ocean Boulevard. On Sunday, four people — including two bystanders — were injured in a shooting near 12th Avenue North. Police arrested six people in connection to that incident. Around 12:45 a.m. Monday, police went to Ocean Boulevard near the Landmark Resort for a homicide. Police charged a 22-year-old man with murder in connection to that shooting.
That followed a shooting on May 17 at Ocean Boulevard near 11th Avenue North when two groups opened fire across the street from each other. Two people were shot and eight people were arrested in the aftermath.
Officials have said all three shootings were gang-related.
At a City Council meeting on Tuesday, several council members praised the police efforts and note that little can be done to stop the shootings. They also scoffed at the idea that police on every corner would have prevented people from making bad decisions.
“We don’t know what everybody’s intentions are,” Bethune said. “We had more than enough police presence this past weekend.”
The mayor later added, “It’s a shame the senseless act of a few thugs that have come here have ruined our reputation and have us in a tailspin.”
Prock provided arrest data from the Memorial Day weekend and noted those charged in connection to the shootings were from outside the community. Prock raised her voice during her presentation and, at a couple of points, turned to the cameras in the back of the room, seemingly to emphasize her points to the public.
“We will not tolerate violent behavior whether it’s Memorial Day weekend or any other time of the year,” she said.
So far no specific details of police plans or changes to try and slow the violence in upcoming days and weeks have been shared. Few city council members provided ideas or solutions to help in the future.
The council tabled a decision on a downtown ambassador program. The idea was first discussed months before the shootings.
“When you look at what takes place in Myrtle Beach versus other parts of the country, where many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more shooting incidents take place, on a daily basis then what’s happened here. That doesn’t make it right,” Lowder said on Tuesday. “That doesn’t solve our issue. What we do need to understand is violence is a part of our nation.”
Lowder said he has a plan to help, but didn’t provide any details, saying he has talked about it previously.
Mayor Pro Temp Jackie Hatley said the city could not help what was done last weekend, and people can’t play the blame game. She did say “we” are going to get aggressive and take the initiative.
Data fact check
City officials — including John Krajc, Bethune and Pedersen — all noted that the Memorial Day weekend was one of the calmest in recent memories. In 2020, there were no official Memorial Day weekend bike week activities after it was postponed due to COVID-19.
The weekend was still full of visitors looking for some sun fun and an escape from months of quarantine.
“It was the most peaceful and calm Memorial weekend I’ve ever seen,” Bethune said.
Prock said there were about 350 arrests during Memorial Day weekend and 2,000 calls for service.
Those figures are down compared to 2017 when there were 714 arrests and 3,600 calls for service. An important note is that in previous years the area had hundreds of more police officers from South Carolina and the region to help the 200 Myrtle Beach police officers. That wasn’t the case in 2020 when Myrtle Beach had about 300 officers working over two shifts.
While officials also called last weekend calm compared to previous Memorial Days, there were no shootings in Myrtle Beach over the holiday in 2019 or 2018. There was a shooting the Tuesday after the 2019 Memorial Day, where police charged an 18-year-old in connection to a shooting at 7th Avenue North and Chester Street. In 2018, there was a shooting on the eve of the weekend at Koyote Saloon on U.S. 501 near Fantasy Harbour.
During Tuesday’s meeting, several leaders also noted that violent crime is down in Myrtle Beach. The number of violent crimes has fallen compared to 2013 — a trend that has been seen nationally for decades.
Myrtle Beach’s drop is almost entirely attributable to a plummeting of robbery incidents. In 2013, there were 178 robberies in Myrtle Beach, according to city data. In 2019, that figure dropped to 98.
Aggravated assaults, rape, and homicide (going from two to three) are all up in 2019 compared to 2013, according to city data. The city’s report also doesn’t note the location of the crimes.
Councilman Mike Chestnut said the issue is not a bike week one.
“There are going to be bad people coming to town,” he said, later adding, “We going to weed them out.”
But, he also said other cities face similar problems and then blamed the media for coverage, and Myrtle Beach’s notoriety leads to more attention. In Hilton Head, there were zero shootings in tourist-populated areas over the Memorial Day weekend. There was one shooting at a private pool party.
In Columbia, there were five shootings over the weekend.
In Virginia Beach, Va., there was one shooting over the holiday weekend and it happened a dozen miles from the beachfront.
A Saturday shooting in Daytona Beach, Florida, left six people injured.
