WATCH: How J. Steele Got Himself in the Middle of a Myrtle Beach Shooting
How do these things happen to me?
I originally went to Myrtle Beach, SC for Memorial Day Weekend to interview Myrtle Beach Safari owner, Doc Antle who is featured in the Tiger King documentary. That interview did happen and I will be posting it soon. Check out a preview clip here.
That night after the interview, I met up with a radio colleague of mine who lives in Greenville, SC who was up for the weekend. We decided to go out and get a couple drinks. We were astonished by the amount of people out walking around, not wearing masks or practicing any kind of social distancing. To be fair, we didn’t have masks on either and we immediately regret it. We figured instead of walking on the strip, we’d walk on the boardwalk to avoid the crowd. It took forever to find anywhere that wasn’t packed where we could get a drink. We found this janky spot where we were able to secure a couple of beverages. We figured now that we got our drinks, we’d head back the other direction to get away from the crowds.
On our walk back, all of a sudden someone said “You might want to go the other way. Gunshots.” We see a crowd of people start running and screaming so I took off! My friend wasn’t phased by it and continued to just walk until all of a sudden someone said, “He’s coming onto the boardwalk.” He then decides to run. The only place I could find to run and hide was the woman’s bathroom. A girl was in there. I told her what was happening and to lock the door and call the police. She said, “My sisters are out there!” I told her that I think she should wait in here but if she wanted to leave, she could. She panicked and I did my best to calm her down. She calls the police and I call my friend who was outside of the bathroom. I let him in so now there’s three of us in the bathroom.
Moments later, a woman is banging on the door asking us to come out and accused us of “doing drugs” because there was a group of us in the bathroom. Did she not just witness what happened? She was too ignorant to even listen.
The situation died down, the suspect got away and eventually was found later. The crazy part was that I got everything on Facebook Live. Well, almost everything. I got the initial response and then us leaving the bathroom. Watch for yourself. If the video doesn’t load below, click here.
After we finally were able to leave the area, multiple TV stations asked to interview me after they found my video online. Understanding how important that is being in media, I did multiple interviews.
I learned my lesson that night and I will no longer be going downtown Myrtle Beach if I choose to visit again. That was the third shooting in less than a week, with two in just 48 hours. Scariest moment of my life. God is good!
