A fight on board a boat where 120 people were partying over the holiday weekend led to a shooting where 11 people were hurt along the South Carolina coast, authorities said.
Only three of the people hurt in Sunday night’s shooting remain in the hospital, and all are expected to survive, Horry County Police Chief Kris Leonhardt said during a news conference Tuesday.
The shooting happened on the dock in Little River along the Intracoastal Waterway as people were getting off the boat, Leonhardt said. Investigators believe only one person was firing.
Ten people were shot and one person was hurt when a speaker fell on their head, authorities said.
No arrests have been made. Leonhardt said many people ran for their lives when the gunfire erupted and were gone by the time officers arrived.
The chief refused to say what started the dispute on the boat and how it led to the shooting on the dock. He also would not say what kind of weapon was used.
“Items were recovered, but that’s part of the investigation, and we don’t want to release it at this time,” Leonhardt said.
Most of the victims were shot in the lower part of their bodies, Horry County Fire Chief Joseph Tanner said.
The shooting around 9:15 p.m. Sunday happened where a private charter boat docks for cruises. About 120 people and four crew members were on the packed boat, authorities said.
A flyer online advertised a party with a DJ on a three-hour cruise ending at 9 p.m. A woman who answered a phone number on the flyer told The Associated Press that she was distraught seeing her friends get shot, but then said she didn’t want to talk anymore and hung up.
Someone who answered the phone at the company that owns the boat told the AP he didn’t want to talk to a reporter.
About 3 miles (5 kilometers) down the Intracoastal Waterway, a North Myrtle Beach police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg as he tried to get a boat into the water to respond to the shooting scene, officials said.
Little River is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Myrtle Beach. The fishing village is known for its docks and marinas where fishing expeditions, casino boats and several dolphin cruises leave daily.
The investigation into Sunday’s shooting has been made a little harder because many of the people on the boat were from out of town and detectives are trying to track them down, Leonhardt said.