‘Disturbing': Horry County solicitor, SLED shed light on deadly Myrtle Beach officer-involved shooting
CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — At least one other person was shot in a Saturday night altercation along Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, sustaining a lower leg wound that was the most serious of 11 injuries reported from the incident, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson told News13 Monday.
'It was over and done within a series of seconds. Most of the injuries were very superficial,' Richardson said.
News13 made separate FOIA requests on Sunday for the Myrtle Beach Police Department's incident report and the 911 calls about the shooting, which left 18-year-old Jerrius Davis of Bennettsville dead. Three Myrtle Beach police officers are on paid administrative leave as both the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division city's department investigate.
'It was shocking:' North Ocean Boulevard businesses shaken after weekend outburst of violence
SLED on Tuesday said Davis was 'armed' and 'shooting into a crowd,' and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Richardson said he spoke with a SLED officials shortly after the shooting took place. It's standard procedure for the agency to step in any time an officer's firearm is discharged.
'We do that because you don't want the same agency that employs the officer to be investigating whether or not a shooting's good,' Richardson said. 'It's my understanding that most, if not all of it, is caught on camera.'
News13 obtained new footage Tuesday taken just after the shooting at 913 N. Ocean Blvd. showing a Black man with no shirt lying motionless on the sidewalk getting medical attention.
Richardson both defended and praised the police department's response, echoing remarks by Mayor Brenda Bethune that the city's officer acted reasonably.
'I think Myrtle Beach police are doing about as much as they can. Police officers were on scene within seconds. The gunfire hadn't even stopped when the officer was there to help all of the citizens on the street,' he said. 'The shooter appears to have paid with his life. I don't know what more police can do than what they did in this case.'
Richardson called acts of violence like Saturday's 'disturbing,' and said his office aggressively prosecutes people when cases arrive.
'If you use a firearm on a crowded street, you're going to be punished severely,' Richardson said. 'We're prosecuting each one of these.'
SLED said Tuesday the incident was South Carolina's 17th officer-involved shooting of the year, compared to 45 in 2024. Myrtle Beach had none last year.
* * *
Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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6 hours ago
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Political violence is threaded through recent US history. The motives and justifications vary
The assassination of one Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes, is just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States. The list, in the past two months alone: the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. The firebombing of a Colorado march calling for the release of Israeli hostages, and the firebombing of the official residence of Pennsylvania's governor — on a Jewish holiday while he and his family were inside. 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