‘Big-time shooting’: Ocean Boulevard gang shootout suspect asks to be released from jail
One of the suspects in a gang shootout on Ocean Boulevard will remain behind bars after his bond request was denied.
Antonio Trayon Brown appeared via video in Horry County court on Wednesday to request his release from jail. Police charged Brown with seven counts of attempted murder, one count of possession of a weapon during a violent crime and one count of unlawful carrying of a pistol.
Six other people were also charged in the incident. None were in court Wednesday.
Brown’s first request for bond was denied in Myrtle Beach municipal court. It was again rejected on Wednesday by Horry County Judge Steven John.
Myrtle Beach officials said rival gangs brought a dispute from Chesterfield County to Myrtle Beach. When they encountered each other on Ocean Boulevard around 7 p.m., May 17, the two groups exchanged fire.
‘This involves a big-time shooting down on the Boulevard in Myrtle Beach,” 15th Judicial Circuit Chief Deputy Solicitor Scott Hixson said.
Kernard Redmond, a deputy Solicitor for the 4th Judicial District, which covers Chesterfield County, joined Hixson to discuss Brown’s case. He noted Brown was on bond in Chesterfield County for attempted murder at the time of the shooting.
Redmond said Brown had an ankle monitor and 6 p.m. curfew as part of his bond conditions in Chesterfield County. It wasn’t until the day after the shooting that Chesterfield County officials learned Brown left the area and came to the Grand Strand.
A confrontation at the Coastal Grand Mall in Myrtle Beach the day before the shooting, and previous issues, led to the groups searching for each other on Ocean Boulevard, Redmond said.
“Both groups were looking for each other. Certainly, when they saw each other, that wasn’t an accidental contact,” Hixson said.
The shooting happened near the Lazy Parrot store and 11th Avenue North as the two groups fired across the street at each other, investigators say. Ocean Boulevard was crowded when shots erupted as it was the first weekend many hotels could take new reservations after being closed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
A Lazy Parrot employee was shot in the back and has since recovered. That employee listened to Brown’s bond hearing via a cellphone, but did not address the court.
Defense Attorney Alex Hyman said that victim was behind Brown, so he couldn’t have been the one that shot her. As the groups encountered each other, Brown tried to walk away, his lawyer said.
“My client was not the instigator of this,” Hyman said.
Brown maintains he did not fire his weapon, Hyman said. He added the other victims in the case are also some of the defendants in the shooting.
The six other people charged in connection with the shooting were:
