Myrtle Beach Police Department
Myrtle Beach police received reports of five armed robberies, a stabbing, a shooting and an incident involving a shotgun being pointed at a security guard during a nearly eight-hour period in the city early Sunday and Monday.
Because so many people were in the area for Memorial Day celebrations and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, officers responded to numerous criminal complaints and traffic violations, said Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes.
"Policing this event has always come with huge challenges. Unfortunately, criminal activity is often associated with large events, which is why we have deployed additional officers to allow us to respond to this increase in activity," Knipes said Monday afternoon. "All of the officers working this event have done an outstanding job in very stressful conditions."
The incidents and their details:
At 8:50 p.m. Sunday, a 39-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound. A woman told police he tripped and fell, which caused the gun to go off in her Myrtle Beach home at 716 62nd Ave. N., according to a police report.
The woman, whose age was not listed in the report, told police she had allowed the man to stay with her for a couple of days to help him out. She had told him he could not stay with her any longer, according to the report. The man was gathering his things to leave when he picked up a 22-caliber rifle.
The woman said the man asked if she wanted to sell the gun and she told him to put the gun down, according to the report. The woman told police the man turned with the gun in his hand, tripped and fell, which caused it to go off.
Additional details about the incident were not listed in the report.
At 9:30 p.m. Sunday, a police officer saw an 18-year-old man running, yelling that he had been robbed.
The 18-year-old, a 28-year-old man and another man whose age was not listed on the report told police they left their room at the Bar Harbor and were going downstairs when they were confronted by three men with guns.
One man ran away from the robbers, but the other two told police they were robbed of their belongings. The men told police the suspects went into a nearby room and police found two men matching their description inside.
Officers found marijuana and a stolen gun inside the room and arrested the two men, Knipes said. Charges are pending.
At 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police were called to Fourth Avenue South and Ocean Boulevard when someone pointed a gun at another person, Knipes said. The victims did not want police involved.
Officers were told by Family Kingdom security that a woman reported being raped by several men, Knipes said. The guard told the woman they had to call police, but she left and a short time later he saw her with a man in a sport utility vehicle.
The guard said the woman got out of the SUV and yelled at him about her property being stolen and the man got out and pointed a shotgun at the guard, who ran.
The couple returned to the SUV and left.
At 1 a.m. Monday, a 41-year-old man reported being stabbed in the abdomen. He told police he wasn't sure where the attack occurred. The man and his wife flagged down an officer from their fifth-floor hotel balcony at 1307 S. Ocean Blvd., to report the incident.
The man told police he and his wife were each on their motorcycles stopped at a traffic signal when a large group of people surrounded them and tried to grab the necklaces from his neck. The man said he felt a pinch to his side and the couple rode back to their hotel.
The man said that on the way up to their room, he noticed he had been stabbed, according to the report. The man was taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center for treatment.
The man's wife told police she was behind him on her motorcycle when the incident occurred. The woman said she tried to care for him when they got to the room and she cleared a coffee table to make him lie down, but he got on the bed.
The woman said she tried to call 911 from the hotel, but was put on hold so she hung up.
Police noticed broken glass on the hotel room floor and the woman said she broke a liquor bottle when she cleared the coffee table. The woman said she cleaned up the mess before police arrived.
The woman also had a cut to her foot and she said that occurred when she cleared the coffee table and the bottle was broken. Police also noted a broken shampoo bottle in the bathroom and shampoo on the mirror and ceiling.
At 2:45 a.m. Monday, a 24-year-old man told police he was robbed in the area of 12th Avenue South and Yaupon Drive. The man told officers he was walking with a friend when two men, armed with a handgun, took the man's necklace, ring and cash.
The man said the robbers had their faces covered and officers could not find the man's friend in the area, according to the report.
At 3 a.m. Monday, a couple told Myrtle Beach police they were robbed at gunpoint by two men while on the beach.
The couple, ages 30 and 21, told officers they were at the beach near 26th Avenue South when two men approached them from a sand dune and pointed a gun at them, police said.
The man told police the robbers ordered them to the ground and went through their pockets. The man said the robbers took various items including necklaces, then ordered the couple to run toward the water.
The robbers ran along the beach until the man lost sight of them. The man and woman returned to their hotel room and called police.
When police ran the man's name through their computer system they learned he was the victim of a similar style robbery early March 13 in the 100 block of North Ocean Boulevard, according to the report. The man reported the same items reported stolen early Monday.
Officers forwarded the case to detectives for investigation.
At 4:30 Monday, police were called to the parking lot of the Greyhound Bus Station at Seventh Avenue North, where a driver for Beachside Cab told police he was hit in the head and robbed while sleeping in the driver's seat of his van, Knipes said. The driver told police the robber demanded money and hit him several times in the head before he threatened him with a gun.
The driver gave the man $320 and another man with the robber demanded the driver's cell phone before he hit the man. Both men ran from the area.
Reader Comments
...can be seriously wild and decadent events in Florida... Spring Break, a week of vacations during the spring for university students, are especially notorious.