By Alex Lang
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — As officers screamed at Jarvis Hayes to put his car in park inside a Myrtle Beach motel parking lot, he turns a car towards them and accelerates at police.
The officers fired dozens of shots, leaving Hayes dead.
As the shots ring out an officer can be seen jumping on the hood of the police cruiser to flee the Jaguar that tried to ram him.
Those moments were caught on dashboard camera that showed the Labor Day weekend shooting. The video was one of several released by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Last month, 15th Judicial Solicitor Jimmy Richardson issued a letter and found no criminal charges against Myrtle Beach Police Officers Drew Fox and Justin Lieberth. Richardson’s decision came on the heels of a SLED report.
SLED Special Agent Tina Carter wrote in the report that Myrtle Beach police were alerted to the Sea Mist Resort at 1305 S. Ocean Boulevard for a driver of a white Jaguar that tried to run over a security guard and maintenance worker.
A witness also stopped officers and told them of the same car driving recklessly in the Ocean Boulevard area, the report states. Police identified Hayes as the driver. Video surveillance showed Hayes driving on a sidewalk and darting into oncoming traffic.
Fox and Field Training Officer Amanda Crago attempted to pull Hayes over at the Mystic Sea Motel, where the shooting occurred.
Hayes’ blood alcohol content was .237, nearly three times the legal driving limit of .08, according to a toxicology report.
An autopsy determined Hayes died of multiple gunshot wounds and his cause of death was homicide, according to the report.
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“You have uncovered substantial evidence to show [Hayes] was acting intoxicated and driving in a manner that threatened the lives of members of the general public on Ocean Boulevard that night,” Richardson wrote in his letter about the decision not to bring criminal charges. “The life of the officer hit by the subject’s car was threatened to the point his fellow officers who witnessed this believed they must fire their weapons in defense of this officer.”
The video showed an officer pulling behind Hayes’ white Jaguar and following him into the motel parking lot. Hayes tries to turn around in the lot. As he maneuvers his turn, officers yell for him to put the car in park. They also approach the vehicle.
Hayes then lunges the car forward towards the drivers’ side of the police cruiser when officers fired at him. The video does not show Hayes being struck by the bullets, but there are several bullet holes visible on the driver’s side of the vehicle in the immediate aftermath.
One officer jump on the hood of the car as the shooting unfolds.
Officers can then be seen reporting the shooting and putting on gloves to provide medical care. As the video unfolds, people start to watch the scene in the complex’s parking area.
Surveillance video also shows Hayes’ white Jaguar driving on the sidewalk near another Ocean Boulevard establishment as patrons sit at outside tables. Another clip shows the same white car later driving by the establishment and a cop car follows. People can be seen watching the scene until they flee inside - presumably when the shooting occurs.
©2018 The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)