Horry County police grappling with surge in gang violence

Of the 19 murders Horry County police investigated last year, nine stemmed from gang activity.

The same could be said of 88 shootings and 1,011 calls for shots fired.

And those numbers don’t include statistics from the city of Myrtle Beach.

“We’re finally taking notice of the gang relationship,” said Horry County Police Chief Saundra Rhodes, adding that while gangs have been operating in the county for decades the county only started studying them in 2006. “We pretty much had our heads in the sand for a long time, thinking that they didn’t exist.”

Over the last two years, the county has seen a surge in gang violence. Rhodes and gang investigator Lynn Baker explained the increase to county officials Monday morning. They also talked about efforts to combat the problem.

“Gangs didn’t start yesterday and we’re not going to get rid of them tomorrow,” Baker said. “It takes work from all of us to continue, to get this done.”

Last year, the county police, sheriff’s office and the city of Myrtle Beach police formed a gang task force to focus on these crimes. The task force has identified more than 50 gangs in the county.

Since the local agencies teamed up, they have seized 32 weapons, more than $250,000 in cash and spurred investigations that led to 10 federal indictments.

Baker said the task force has a list of other gang members that authorities plan to present to a federal grand jury soon. She noted that local investigators often push for federal cases because they carry longer prison sentences.

“We care about this county,” she said. “We care about these gang members that are out in the streets and in establishments aggravating, intimidating our people.”

Baker said the types of gangs in the county run the gamut from variations of the Bloods and Crips to motorcycle gangs to groups with local names such as the Conway Project Thugs.

As the violence has escalated, the families of gang members have suffered. The investigator told a story about a 22-year-old gang member from the Loris area whose casket contained tributes from his young daughter.

“Somebody’s going to have to explain to this kid what happened,” Baker said.

County officials knew there was a gang problem. They recently appointed a special panel to come up with ideas for reducing violence. But some of the police department’s statistics presented Monday floored them.

“One thing that really stands out to me is 88 shootings in this county. Eighty-eight,” said councilman Al Allen, who chairs the public safety committee. “What’s happened to our county in the last 20 years and how do we want to leave this county for the next 20 years? We need to put our hearts and souls into this. … The good book tells us he that lives by the sword will die by the sword. But it’s up to us to make sure that our families and our county are protected. … We need to do everything that we possibly can to turn this tide. That’s just awful.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Horry County police grappling with surge in gang violence."