07-05-2025
Teen hurt in Myrtle Beach officer-involved shooting says she was wounded by officer's bullet
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — One of the victims in last month's deadly Ocean Boulevard officer-involved shooting in Myrtle Beach said Wednesday she was wounded by a bullet fired from an officer's gun.
Fifteen-year-old Serenity Chavis was among the 11 people hurt in the April 26 incident in which Jerrius Davis, 18, of Bennettsville, was killed after authorities said he opened fire in a crowd of people gathered on the boulevard.
'When the police shot me, I didn't feel the bullet,' Chavis said at a news conference attended by her mother and a nationally known civil rights activist. 'My leg just gave out, just like I couldn't run no more, so I'm trying to drag my leg and go, and I just couldn't do it no more. I just gave out, and I laid back, and when I laid back, I started screaming for help, and two officers came.'
Deadly officer-involved shooting at least 25th instance of gun violence on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach since 2020
Chavis described the moments after calling for help.
'The one that shot me stood in front of me and told me that he was sorry. He just kept saying that he was sorry,' Chavis said. 'And I just kept saying, 'Can y'all please help me?' And I asked [If I was going to] die and he said 'No, [you're not going to] die. They were [going to] put me in handcuffs until I told them I'm an innocent bystander. That's what happened.'
Chavis' mom, Kendra Malloy, said she just wants answers.
'I've been left in the blind,' Malloy said. 'You know, nobody has come up front. The police department has not contacted me. No police report. We were in the hospital for five days. Nobody reached out to us, like, they've said nothing, you know, like we're nobody.'
After the news conference, News13 asked Myrtle Beach police and the SLED about Serenity's claim that she was shot by an officer and received the following response from police:
'This is an active investigation being led by SLED,' spokesman Randolph Angotti said. 'As the facts about this incident become available from SLED, we will share them with our community.'
In a 'devastating turn of events' just six days after the Ocean Boulevard shooting, Malloy's 18-year-old son was wounded in another shooting at an after-prom party in Laurinburg, North Carolina, she wrote in a GoFundMe post. His injuries were not life-threatening.
'As a mother, I am doing everything in my power to be strong for both of my children,' Malloy wrote. 'But the emotional, physical, and financial burden is overwhelming.
Laurinburg police are still investigating that shooting, which was one of two that occurred there late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
The shooting almost immediately garnered the attention of the civil rights group, True Healing Under God, or T.H.U.G., whose founder, John C. Barnett, organized the news conference at the Myrtle Beach police headquarters on N. Oak Street, a few blocks north of where the shooting happened.
In a release ahead of the news conference, the group said it expected to meet with Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune, who, along with Police Chief Amy Prock, has drawn criticism in the days after the Saturday night shooting in the busy downtown business district, where millions of tourists visit every summer.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was called in to handle the investigation because the shooting involved a Myrtle Beach police officer. Davis' mother, Jaeishala Fox, told News13 last Thursday that her family had met with SLED investigators.
The agency said last week that Davis was 'armed' and 'shooting into a crowd,' an allegation that his mother disputes. Three Myrtle Beach police officers were placed on paid leave after the shooting.
Barnett, who created after his brother was murdered by his cousin in 1994, has handled multiple high-profile cases: one involving an Emmett Till demonstration in Raleigh, North Carolina; one that involved the torture of two black men by six local sheriff's deputies in Rankin County, Mississippi; and one tied to the death of Shanquella Robinson of Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.
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