Months after a mass shooting in Myrtle Beach that left 11 people injured and one shooter dead, questions remain about who was shot by a suspect and who by an officer.
in 2025 April 26 overnight, gunshots rang out along the popular Ocean Boulevard tourist strip in downtown Myrtle Beach. Surveillance video showed 18-year-old Jerrius Davis of Bennettsville firing a handgun into the crowd four times, and Myrtle Beach Police Officer Brandon O’Rourke returned fire five times, killing Davis.
In September, the South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement released a 40-page report detailing that night. But that does little to explain which person’s bullets hit the victims caught in the crossfire. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 42, The Sun News previously reported.
The South Carolina Department of Law Enforcement led the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, and the Myrtle Beach Police Department conducted an internal review after the shooting. O’Rourke was eliminated during the shooting.
Myrtle Beach police spokesman Randolph Angotti said information about who did the shooting is included in the SLED investigative report, but that information does not appear to have been made clear.
In the SLED report published in 2025 on September 10, detailing the accounts of the victims that night, as well as the number of shots fired and who was in the line of fire when O’Rourke and Davis opened fire. But some of the victims are in the line of fire of both shooters, making it unclear who shot them.
In response to questions about more specifics about who shot whom, SLED spokeswoman Renée Wunderlich said the case is closed and all information that can be shared has been included in the agency’s investigative report and closing documents.
Civil rights attorney John C. Barnett, who has worked with several shooting victims, added that the “mysterious bullet” taken from the 13-year-old’s leg could reveal more about the shooting.
Barnett believes investigators could have examined the bullet to see if it came from Davis’ or O’Rourke’s gun, but no answers were forthcoming.
The Sun News also reached out to civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who worked with the victim’s family, for comment, but did not receive a response.
In the days after the shooting, Barnett gained notoriety in the Myrtle Beach community for demanding information about the case and rallying victims and city and law enforcement officials. While he noted that he was able to gain valuable insight into the shooting, Barnett expressed frustration that after months of waiting for the SLED report to be released, crucial questions about who shot the bystanders still remain unanswered.
“The 40-page report says nothing about bullets,” Barnett said.
Some bullets, such as the one that struck 15-year-old Serenity Chavis in the leg, could not be recovered because they did not remain lodged in the victim, Barnett said. Others could not be removed from the victims they hit, he continued.
But one bullet was pulled from the 13-year-old boy’s leg when he returned home to Martinsville, Virginia, Barnett said.
According to Barnett, two SLED agents went to Martinsville to retrieve the bullet. Barnett asked that they share an image of the bullet with him as soon as they got it, he said. He never got the image.
Barnett claims the bullet could have been analyzed to determine which gun it came from, even if it was disfigured by the impact. He added that he plans to seek answers about the bullet and others because he believes law enforcement officials are not being open about the shooting.
“Nobody believes that the policeman who fired into that crowd didn’t hit anybody,” he said.