A shooting at a Myrtle Beach hotel left 1 person injured. Here’s what we know
One person was injured Wednesday from a gunshot wound after a shooting at a Myrtle Beach hotel on Ocean Boulevard. But there has not been any arrests as of Thursday afternoon.
Officers responded to Wave Rider Resort on 16th Avenue around 12:30 p.m. after suspects left the scene, according to a Myrtle Beach Facebook post.
The injured person was taken to the hospital, the post states. Their condition is unclear.
Myrtle Beach Police spokesman Tom Vest said via text there is no threat to the public a few hours after the Facebook post. No additional details have been provided about the status of the suspects or the investigation since then.
Investigators had roped off the back parking lot of hotel on the Youpon Avenue side of the property Wednesday, and law enforcement were on the third-floor balcony.
Jeff Maloof, a nearby resident, was waiting for his children to get off the bus just across the street from the scene of the reported shooting. He said that incidents like this become more common during the off-season because of rates go down at the hotels.
“It’s a totally different vibe at the end of the season,” he added.
The Wave Rider Resorts is listed as a 2-star hotel. Recent Google trends show room pricing varies from $35 to $59 a night.
The Kiddie Park Learning Center, also near the Wave Rider, welcomes three buses of students from Horry County Schools after each school day.
Kim Altman, whose mom owns the daycare, said they haven’t had many concerns about safety, adding the incident was unusual for 16th Avenue.
But, after she heard about the shooting, Altman decided to call the district and ask if the buses could let the students off closer to the center’s entrance rather than the corner, which is a few yards away from the business.
Officer killed in 2020 near Wednesday’s shooting
In the same area as Wednesday’s shooting, former city officer Jacob Hancher was shot multiple times by a 7.62 caliber semiautomatic rifle in 2020, according to a South Carolina Lew Enforcement Division report released January 2021.
He was among a group of officers responding to a domestic dispute near 14th Avenue S. and Yaupon Drive when John Aycoth, distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend, exchanged gunfire with police around 10 p.m.
Even after being hit, Hancher continued returning fire from the ground.
“It was an ambush. And in one minute and 54 seconds, the person in that house took Jacob away from all the people who cared about him, us here in the police department, his family and this community,” Myrtle Beach Police Cpl. Tom Vest told reporters in February 2021.
Hancher became the third Myrtle Beach officer to die in the line of duty and its youngest.