Some Ocean Boulevard businesses closing earlier on weekends after deadly officer-involved shooting
Myrtle Beach police say just before midnight on April 26, 18-year-old Jerrius Davis of Bennettsville fired shots into a crowd of people between 9th Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard.
An officer shot and killed Davis. Eleven people were injured during the shooting, including 15-year-old Serenity Chavis, who claims she was hit by an officer's bullet.
An employee at a clothing and gift shop called Generationx, who wanted to remain anonymous, says the store has not changed its hours since the shooting.
However, she says she needs to stay safe at work, for her children at home and her fellow employees.
'What I really think about is the people injured, and how that could've been me or one of my employees,' she said. 'That right there, alone, put a little bit of fear in my little heart.'
The employee says that before the shooting, she would leave the store around midnight. Now, she leaves at 9 p.m.
With peak tourism season just around the corner, the employee is worried the shooting may mean fewer customers and less money this year.
'Is it going to really stop the flow?' she asked. 'That's really what everybody's questioning at the moment. I pray that it don't.'
The employee is also concerned that visitors are learning about the shooting and thinking they are not safe shopping downtown.
'We should be able to thrive a little bit better,' she said. 'Well, we should be able to, if people would put that a little bit to the side. It really don't have nothing to do with the businesses. You got to look at other stuff, not the businesses.'
News13 spoke to employees at Myrtle Beach Fries and Boardwalk Paradise General Store, who are temporarily closing their stores earlier on weekends because of the shooting.
They did not want to talk on-camera.
One Myrtle Beach Fries employee says she is closing earlier, but only until tourism season begins on Memorial Day Weekend.
Boardwalk Paradise General Store is also closing a few hours earlier, until they receive more information about the shooting from the city and police department.
News13 also spoke to Governor Henry McMaster at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic Pro-Am on Wednesday. He says both businesses and their customers should feel safe on Ocean Blvd.
'They should realize that these things happen all over the place,' McMaster said. 'They don't happen here like they do in other places. We have great law enforcement. I would say be smart, be careful, and have a good time. I think they'll be very pleased with their visit.'
A city spokesperson sent News13 a statement that said, in part, 'I don't think the decision of two businesses is reflective of the dozens of businesses in operation along this area of Ocean Boulevard.'
She also said it is normal for business hours to change closer to the start of tourism season, and that the Myrtle Beach Police Department will have a strong presence on Ocean Boulevard.
* * *
Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Epoch Times
a day ago
- Epoch Times
Former Tibet Official Receives Suspended Death Sentence for Corruption
A former Chinese official, whom the United States and Canada sanctioned for aiding the Communist Party's human rights abuses, has been given a suspended death sentence for taking bribes. Wu Yingjie, former Party chief in the far-western region of Tibet, was found guilty of taking approximately 343 million yuan (about $47.7 million) in bribes while serving in various positions in Tibet between 2006 and 2021, according to a statement issued by the Supreme People's Court, China's highest court, on July 15. Wu was given a death sentence with two years' probation, and the authorities will confiscate his personal assets, the court said. This means that if Wu demonstrates good behavior over the next two years, his death sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment. Wu, 68, was among the highest-profile figures to be purged under Xi Jinping, the Party's top leader. Wu had been placed under investigation by the country's top anti-corruption agency since July 2024. In December 2024, Wu was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for so-called seriously violating the law and regulations, including meddling in engineering projects in exchange for cash bribes, state media reported at the time. The harsh sentence adds to the signs that the CCP hasn't eased the anti-corruption campaign, which was launched shortly after Xi took control of the Party in 2012. The campaign has taken down some of Xi's most powerful rivals. However, in recent years, amid intensified power struggles within the party, it has also been directed against those within Xi's inner circle. Wu climbed the political ladder during his nearly 50 years in Tibet, starting in the educational bureau and later moving to the propaganda department. In 2005, he became a member of the Party committee, according to publicly available information in China. His political career reached its peak in 2016, when he was appointed as Tibet's Party secretary, a role that he held for five years. In 2021, Wu was appointed to the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp legislature, and subsequently served in the People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body. As part of the actions to mark Human Rights Day, on Dec. 9, 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Wu for his involvement in the CCP's rights violations in Tibet, alongside another senior Chinese official, Zhang Hongbo. The U.S. Treasury Department said at the time that Tibetans have been subject to serious human rights abuses in the region, including 'arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and physical abuse,' as part of the CCP's efforts to 'severely restrict religious freedoms.' In addition, the State Department announced sanctions against Tang Yong, former deputy director of Chongqing Area Prisons in southwestern China, in response to the CCP's ongoing persecution of the spiritual group Falun Gong. The move drew the ire of Beijing. China's foreign ministry announced sanctions against two Americans: Miles Yu, a key China policy adviser to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Todd Stein, then-deputy staff director at the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. In December 2024, Canada added Wu and seven other Chinese officials to its sanctions list for their involvement in the CCP's repressions against Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Falun Gong practitioners. Beijing retaliated by sanctioning 20 Canadian individuals and two organizations that have been vocal about the CCP's human rights violations, drawing condemnation from Ottawa.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago man charged after crash into Indiana highway wall
A Chicago man was charged Tuesday with drunkenly crashing into a highway wall, records allege. Kyle N. Davis, 32, is charged with causing serious bodily injury when operating a vehicle while intoxicated and two misdemeanors. He is in custody, held on a $2,000 cash bond. Indiana State Police responded at 12:22 a.m. July 21 to the .02-mile marker on I-80 west in Hammond, just inside the state line. Davis initially told police he swerved to avoid someone in front of him and hit the wall. Then, as cops went to get the woman's ID, he changed his story, saying they had been at the casino for hours and he lost control of his white Chevrolet Equinox. 'You can test me right now, I ain't even drunk,' he said. He told police he had a busted lip and an injured leg. His female passenger was taken to the hospital with a cut lip, head pain and 'memory issues.' An affidavit shows Davis had a no contact order that barred him from seeing the woman. He told police he thought it just prevented them from fighting.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
Florida man died on Mt. Washington after falling off steep, rocky slope, officials said
'There is no indication of how Davis ended up at that location and how far he had traveled over the rocky terrain to get there,' officials said in a news release. 'He was not a hiker, had no map, and every indication is he wandered off the summit without telling anyone where he was going.' Advertisement Davis took a railway to the summit on Wednesday with his wife, officials said, before wandering away from the observation deck around 3:20 p.m. Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Fish and Game officials were notified around 6 p.m. of Davis's disappearance, and a State Park employee successfully made phone contact with him, officials said. Davis told the employee he was lost, officials said, but his description of his whereabouts led authorities to believe he was near the summit and would be found easily. Yet after officials searched for him for more than an hour, Davis stopped answering his phone. On Wednesday night, more than 24 rescuers a drone team combed the western side of the summit, officials said, searching off-trail locations until 2 a.m., when fog and wind forced them to suspend the search. Advertisement Several more rescue agencies joined the search the next morning, officials said. Unable to find Davis, and dealing with worsening weather conditions, officials suspended the search at nightfall on Thursday. The search resumed Friday morning, with rescue teams concentrating on the east and south slopes. At approximately 11 a.m., volunteer searchers found Davis's body in an off-trail area between Alpine Garden and Tuckerman Ravine trails, officials said. An Army National Guard Blackhawk Helicopter retrieved the body just before 1 p.m., officials said. 'It was a tragic end to a tough search mission,' officials said. 'The Fish and Game Department would like to thank all the volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to bring Davis back to his family.' Steve Smith , a hiker and former member of the Pemigewasset Valley Search & Rescue Team, said the area where Davis's body was found is about a quarter mile from the summit. 'It's very steep, rough, and rocky up there,' he said in a text message. Truman Dickerson can be reached at
