Man arrested after shooting outside LGBTQ+ nightclub in South Carolina
Police were called to Pulse Ultra Club on 1 April after reports of gunfire outside the venue
By Callum Wells
A man has been arrested after shots were fired outside an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in an incident that has led to the first use of the city’s hate intimidation law.
Police were called to Pulse Ultra Club on 1 April after reports of gunfire outside the venue. No injuries were reported.
Officers say several shots were fired from a vehicle stopped on the road nearby. A car belonging to the club’s owner was hit, with damage to the rear passenger window and windscreen.
“I was in my office doing paperwork, and I heard bang, bang, bang, bang, about five or six shots” – Pulse Ultra Club owner, Ken Phillips
Ken Phillips, who owns the venue, said he initially heard the gunfire from inside. “I was in my office doing paperwork, and I heard bang, bang, bang, bang, about five or six shots. So I go to my side door from my office and look outside and didn’t see anything,” he said, as per WACH Fox 57.
Phillips realised what had happened when he went to check his car. “When I open my car door, my passenger window fell in. So then I went to the other side of my car and noticed that there were bullet holes in my car. So I called the cops and, they rushed right on out.”
Police later stopped a vehicle they say matched CCTV footage from the scene. The driver, 37-year-old Timothy James Truett, was arrested. Officers reportedly recovered a firearm and shell casings from the car.
Timothy James Truett is currently being held at J Reuben Long Detention Center
Truett has been charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling, discharging a firearm within city limits and damaging property. He also faces a hate intimidation charge.
“My primary concern has and always will be the safety of my community and my customers,” Phillips said. “It’s given me great concern … as to how far people will go.”
Investigators have not confirmed a motive. The case is understood to be the first time Myrtle Beach’s hate intimidation law, introduced in 2024, has been used.
Truett is currently being held at J Reuben Long Detention Center on a bond of $312,174.