Shooting Ends With Officer, Suspect Dead

Police had been called to a house in Myrtle Beach
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2020 11:00 AM CDT
Shooting Ends With Officer, Suspect Dead
Police officers gather Saturday night near the site of a shooting in Myrtle Beach, S.C.   (Jason Lee/The Sun News via AP)

A police officer and a suspect were killed Saturday night when shooting erupted after police were called to a home in Myrtle Beach. When the shooting stopped, both were found dead, and a second officer was found to be wounded; he was hospitalized with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening, a South Carolina official said. "PFC Jacob Hancher was killed in the line of duty while responding to a call for service," the city's police chief announced Sunday. Hancher was a police officer for less than a year and a community officer for four years before that, WMBF reports. Chief Amy Prock added, per WBTW, "He cared about the people that he served, served with, and absolutely loved Myrtle Beach."

A woman who was stuck in traffic when the shooting started—with three children in the car—described the chaos. Officers were "running every which way," Brittany Ezell said, firefighters rushed into the street, and she saw "cop cars just coming from every direction." As cars going the other direction sped away from the shooting, she thought, "Oh my God, what do I do?" A firefighter appeared, per WBTW, and told people to "get down in your car." Soon after that, he told Ezell to turn her car around and get out of there. She took the children to McDonald's, but they were too upset at first to eat. Once they did, Ezell said, they were asleep in about 30 minutes. (More police shooting stories.)

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