Three Shot Dead At South Carolina Oceanfront Hotel

[May 27, 2014]  By Victoria Cavaliere
 
 (Reuters) - Three people were killed and a fourth wounded in a shooting at a oceanfront hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S. Southeast, police said on Sunday.

Officers responded to a call of shots fired at the Bermuda Sands resort on the Myrtle Beach boardwalk around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, according to the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

Two men and one woman were pronounced dead at the scene and the fourth was transported to a local hospital in unknown condition, he said.

The shooting came on a weekend when Myrtle Beach was packed with visitors for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the unofficial start of the summer season, and for an annual sports rally called the Atlantic Beach Bikefest.

"We certainly don't like to see any type of incident where somebody dies during this event, or any event that Myrtle Beach has," Myrtle Beach Police Captain David Knipes told WISTV. "To have three people (killed) in one night is kind of a big thing; we only had two homicides for a total last year," he said.

Two of the victims were gunned down in the hotel's breezeway, authorities said.

There was no immediate word on a motive and there had not been any arrests by early Sunday, police said.

Witnesses told the Sun News they heard fighting on a sidewalk outside the hotel before gunshots were fired.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere, editing by G Crosse)

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