MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — During last month’s tragic officer-involved shooting on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, one of the victims confirmed on Wednesday that she was struck by a bullet from an officer’s firearm.
Serenity Chavis, aged 15, was among 11 individuals injured in the April 26 event, where 18-year-old Jerrius Davis from Bennettsville was fatally shot during a time he reportedly began shooting into a crowd on the boulevard.
At a press conference with her mother and a prominent civil rights activist, Chavis recounted, “When the police shot me, I didn’t initially feel the bullet. Suddenly, my leg just gave out, making it impossible to run. I tried dragging it to move but eventually collapsed. As I lay back on the ground, I started screaming for assistance, and then two officers arrived.”
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 T.HU.G. 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.
