01-06-2025
Tourists visit downtown Myrtle Beach despite recent violence. What they said
Three-year-old Kashtyn Grogan hoists up a new set of toy tools he won for 2,500 tickets at the Fun Plaza on Ocean Boulevard. His mom Kaitlyn Grogan browses the prizes to budget the 1,600 extra tickets her son won at the Willy Wonka game.
He and his two younger brothers are on vacation at Myrtle Beach for the start of the summer.
Friday evening kicked off with a stormy start, with winds powerful enough to tear down fences surrounding the Pavilion Park and knock over trash cans.
Many visitors sought refuge in local restaurants or their hotel rooms before the night got started after the sun set, when dozens of young people walked up and down the boulevard to play arcade games, eat funnel cake, and gawk at the modified trucks cruising down the traffic funnel.
'You don't even remember me,' Kaitlyn Speaks shouted at an employee at an airbrush T-shirt vendor.
Speaks goes to Myrtle Beach every year, she said. She's downtown for a girls' trip and a wedding with her friend Emma Mullins as she brushes off another sales pitch from the persistent employee.
'We're beefing with him right now,' Mullins said as she scoops up a bite of funnel cake.
The employee threw up his hands and turned to coax more passers-by for a sale. They all walk on and wish him a nice night.
'Y'all want a T-shirt?' he said. 'I'm just bored as hell.'
Soon after, Issac Shinault from Greensboro, NC, cruises by on a Onewheel electric skateboard and a bucket of roses.
He rolls up and down the boulevard handing them out to children, and even one of the shopkeepers waves him down with a dollar in hand.
'I'm just here to spread positivity,' he said. 'There's never a bad reason for flowers.'
Henry and Cheryl Seaborn from St. Louis, MO, joke with each other as they meander down the boardwalk. They said they feel safe while walking downtown.
'It can't be worse than Washington, D.C.,' Henry Seaborn said. 'I ain't seen too many criminal-looking people around here.'
'Speak for yourself,' Cheryl Seaborn said.
Grogan said her family has paid attention to when the bike week comes to town.
'If we were here last week with what happened in Little River, I would not feel safe,' she said and pointed to her two sons in a beach cart.
Myrtle Beach Police officers patrolled the streets after dark. They're keeping a watchful eye out for any commotion and offering directions to families and summer party-goers.
There was a tragedy not too long ago on the strip where these families visit.
Business has been much slower since April, one shop employee lamented. This time last year, many more people were coming into his shop, he said.
On April 26 at 11:50 p.m., 18-year-old Jerrius Davis fired his gun on North Ocean Boulevard near 9th Avenue North. A Myrtle Beach Police officer returned fire, hitting and killing the Bennettsville teenager.
The Myrtle Beach Police Department released dash cam footage of the incident on May 29.
The footage showed Davis bending over to reach for a gun and firing it into a crowd. He was then pursued within seconds by Officer Brandon O'Rourke, who is shown firing his gun five times and killing Davis while running down Ocean Boulevard as Davis fled into a crowd.
The incident injured 11 people. It is unclear what victims were injured by Davis' gunfire or O'Rourke's.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is still investigating the incident.
O'Rourke and two other officers who responded to the incident, Mohamad El-Kelwi and Jeramiah Johnson were put on paid leave during the investigation and have since been put back on the job, according to a video released by Myrtle Beach police.
Two of the people injured in the incident include 13-year-old Zavian Hairston of Virginia and 15-year-old Serenity Chavis of North Carolina.
Chavis has claimed Myrtle Beach police shot her that night.
