In a “Way to Go Wednesday” post on its Facebook page, the North Myrtle Bech Police Department praised one of its officers for her heroic actions when she saw a woman silently begging for help in a car at a traffic stop.
Beginning the post, the department described why the officer, Officer Wallace, was in the situation and able to rescue the woman from her kidnapper, noting that she stopped the vehicle because it blew through a red light, and then approached the vehicle and its two occupants after pulling it over. “On May 28th, around 5:30 am, Officer Wallace was patrolling US Hwy 17 in North Myrtle Beach when she observed a white jeep disregard a red light at an intersection. Officer Wallace conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle. She observed a female driver and a male passenger when she approached the vehicle,” the department said.
Continuing, the post noted that Officer Wallace observed the kidnapped woman mouthing “help me” at a point when the male in the car was distracted, noting that the female driver appeared distressed during the traffic stop. “As she spoke with the vehicle’s occupants, she noticed the driver appeared distressed. While the male passenger wasn’t looking at the driver, the female silently mouthed “Help Me” repeatedly,” the post claimed.
So, Officer Wallace acted quickly once seeing the woman silently begging for help, getting the male passenger out of the vehicle before he could do anything to injure the driver or herself, getting him restrained in the back of her patrol vehicle so she could figure out what was going on. “Officer Wallace observed the driver’s message and removed the passenger from the vehicle, placing him in the back seat of her patrol car,” the post said.
Continuing, the post then noted that the female driver, once no longer in the grip of the tyrant in the passenger’s seat, “frantically” told the officer that the passenger had shot someone moments before the officer received a report from the department that there was a shooter in the county. “She then went back to the suspect vehicle and spoke to the female driver, who frantically advised that the passenger had just shot someone. Moments later, a “Bolo” (Be On the Look Out) was sent over the radio from dispatch regarding a vehicle that was just involved in a shooting in the county,” it said.
Ending the post, the department praised Officer Wallace for her vigilance at the end of her shift, particularly when it came to noticing that something was up with the vehicle when it blew through the light and in noticing that the driver of the stopped vehicle was silently begging for help. It said: “Due to Officer Wallace proactively patrolling the streets of North Myrtle Beach, even to the last 30 minutes of her shift, a suspect in a shooting was arrested and an unlawfully carried pistol was recovered underneath the suspect’s seat. Our department and our community is lucky to have Officer Wallace. Great Job!”