MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Cameras positioned along Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach captured an 18-year-old man shooting toward a group of people on April 26, a block away and only seconds after a city police officer shot and killed a Bennettsville man who had opened fire on the crowded street, documents said.
Ja’Warren Bethea Jr. was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree assault and battery in connection with the shooting, which happened in the area of the Pavilion lot near 8th Avenue N. and N. Ocean Boulevard. He was given a $20,000 bond and released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on Tuesday, according to online jail records.
Officers initially responded to the area and found three .380 caliber shell casings after getting an alert from the city’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, according to an affidavit filed in the city’s magistrate court.
Officers reviewed city cameras in the area that showed Bethea walking south on the sidewalk on the west side of N. Ocean Boulevard, the affidavit said. As he walked with a group of people, he is seen “abruptly facing back Northward at which time he points a firearm and fires several rounds before fleeing from the area Southbound.”
The affidavit indicates he fired “three times in the direction of a large group of people.” Using the city cameras, officers tracked him along Ocean Boulevard until he was seen on a private camera at 701 N. Ocean Boulevard, about a block south of where the shooting happened.
Using the video evidence, officers put together a physical description and issued a “BOLO” advisory to surrounding law enforcement agencies, including authorities in Laurinburg, North Carolina, where he was believed to have ties to the area.
Bethea is the fourth person charged in the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Jerrius Davis of Bennettsville. Myrtle Beach police and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division are continuing to investigate the series of events surrounding the mass shooting that left 11 people with gunshot-related injuries.
On May 29, more than a month after the shooting, Police Chief Amy Prock released a video containing dashcam video from the night of the shooting and a timeline of the department’s investigation.
The video shows Davis opening fire on Ocean Boulevard and officers returning fire and killing him. Prock said the timeline goes all the way back to a high school football game on Sept. 6 between Marlboro County and Scotland in Laurinburg.
Source: Fox 8 News Channel
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