On the heels of South Carolina Governor Haley’s comments about eliminating future Black Bike Week events the North Myrtle Beach community struggle to find tools to eliminate the accompanying violence.
Last week we estimated the borrowed police cost around $105,000 to $150,000 for the 3-day weekend. North Myrtle Beach Police Public Information Officer, Pat Dowling, confirms the labor cost at $127,000 in the following article:
North Myrtle Beach – Whether or not Gov. Haley’s comments stick about putting an end to Bikefest, leaders in North Myrtle Beach are going to get prepared for the return of bikers next year, just to be safe.
There is no word yet into the details of next year’s safety plan in response to Bikefest, but North Myrtle Beach Public Information Officer Pat Dowling said it will be conducted through the police department.
City residents have been voicing their concerns to city council through e-mail. Many people are complaining about not feeling safe and a lack of enforcement by police for the noise ordnance.
Cynthia Walters lives on Ocean Boulevard she explained what it was like with police.
“They would see it. They heard it, but they did nothing,” she said.
“If people are looking for a totally quiet weekend, then we failed. But if people were looking for a weekend where we were on top of pretty much most major crime, then we succeeded,” explained Dowling.
Walters adds she just wants to feel respected from the bikers who turn out for Bikefest while they’re in the city.
There was 144 out of area law enforcement officers who were brought in to help uphold the law. That cost the city $127,000, according to Dowling. (link)
Meanwhile more is coming to light about the actual participants in the Myrtle Beach Massacre:
Gang activity in Myrtle Beach triple homicide sparks closer look at Charleston County groups – Days before Christmas 2012, Keith Alextruss Williams showed up at the Game Room, a Ladson nightclub. Deputies knew him to have ties to “Town of Lincolnville,” or TOL, a local gang.
He partied alongside Nathaniel Nelson Green, a rap singer from the town. Officers knew of Green, too. He had done prison time for shooting someone amid a crowd at a Thanksgiving parade in Mount Pleasant.
At some point, a fight broke out at the Game Room. Williams drew a pistol, deputies said, and fired 14 times. Someone fired back, hitting Green in the hip. Williams escaped unharmed, but he later was arrested. After Green recovered and Williams posted bail, the two got together again a week ago in Myrtle Beach. They went there to party May 24 during Atlantic Beach Bikefest.
But that night, they found themselves in another brawl. Gunshots resounded, and Williams went down.
Green ran to the Bermuda Sands Motel. A gunman followed and unleashed another volley, missing Green but hitting three other friends from the Summerville area.
When it ended, Jamie Alexander Williams, 28, Devonte Herman Dantzler, 21, and Sandy Geddis Barnwell, 22, were dead, and Keith Williams clung to life at a hospital.
Myrtle Beach police investigators have labeled the shooting a result of possible gang activity, but a spokesman stopped short of naming any group that the Summerville-area residents might have encountered that Saturday night. An alleged shooter has not been arrested.
But the Lincolnville group is one of several street gangs that have caught the interest of local law agencies. The FBI indicated in 2011 that 33,000 of them have proliferated nationwide.
All of the young men who were shot have been accused of being on one side of a gun or the other in the past, and Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Eric Watson said deputies were working with Myrtle Beach police officers to look at their backgrounds for clues in the shooting.
“Most of the activity involved with these groups is criminal activity – weapons, drugs – that tends to promote violence,” Watson said. “Mostly, they fight over turf.” (continue reading to learn about the individuals)
