A man opened fire at another man in a shooting outside a downtown Myrtle Beach gas station and a man sitting in a car nearby captured the entire thing on video and posted it to Twitter. You can see the video below, but be aware that some of the language in it is graphic.
The man being shot at appears to not have been injured as he runs away after the shots ended. The video begins with two men talking in a car as they observe what’s happening at a gas station nearby. When shots ring out, the man taking the video utters out in surprise but keeps filming. “That guy got a gun in his pants,” one man in the video. “He’s about to go in there and rob that place.” You have to watch a ways into the video to see the gunfire erupt; that part comes toward the end. It’s not clear why the man decided to start filming the scene.
JUST IN – @aaron_e30 posted this shocking video to Twitter of a man shooting at another man in downtown Myrtle Beach. WARNING: Video does contain graphic language.
Here’s what we know so far: t.co/pfbyeoDbZx
According to WMFB-TV, Myrtle Beach police confirmed that they had “responded to a report of shots fired Wednesday afternoon near 15th Avenue South and Yaupon Drive in Myrtle Beach.” They also confirmed that nobody was injured in the shooting. The shooting occurred outside a gas station at 15th Avenue South and Kings Highway.
An 18-year-old Myrtle Beach man posted the video to Twitter, according to Myrtle Beach Online, which reported that the shooting erupted in broad daylight, at around 2 p.m. in the afternoon on May 16, 2018. The video was initially posted on Twitter, and the video has circulated widely in Myrtle Beach news media. Although some Myrtle Beach media are posting the name of the teenager who first posted the video to Twitter, Heavy is withholding his name due to the seriousness of what was witnessed.
Police Capt. Joey Crosby told Myrtle Beach Online, “Officers have learned that no one was injured as a result of this incident. Initial information leads officers to believe that the victim and suspect know each other. Investigators and Crime Scene officers are on scene and continue to investigate this incident.” No one was under arrest in the immediate hours after the shooting unfolded.
It’s not the first time that video of a Myrtle Beach shooting was posted to social media. In 2017, Facebook Live video showed a gunman opening fire into a crowd in the community. Seven people were shot in that incident, although none of them was suffered fatal wounds. A suspect was eventually arrested in connection with that mass shooting.
Videos of shootings and other crimes being posted to social media is a relatively new phenomenon that has occurred more frequently throughout the United States as a result of the advent of streaming services like Facebook Live. Such videos have emerged in some high-profile police shootings as well as in gang-related and other crimes in states ranging from Illinois to Minnesota. Although they can provide valuable evidence of what actually happened, they’ve also caused an uproar in some cases.