SC police officer dies in New Year’s Day car crash while responding to call

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A South Carolina police sergeant died when he got into a car crash while responding to a call early Friday, according to the North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety.

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Authorities said Sgt. Gordan William Best, 30, was responding to a call from Barefoot Resort around 4 a.m. Friday when he lost control of his police cruiser on Highway 17. Investigators said he veered into a northbound lane and hit a utility pole. Officials pronounced him dead at the scene of the wreck.

“We ask all to pray for Sergeant Gordon Best and his family,” the North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety said Friday in a statement.

Best joined the public safety department in October 2013 and became a sergeant in February 2019. At a news conference Friday, Mayor Marilyn Hatley said Best’s death marked the first of any police officer in the city.

“Our community is devastated,” Hatley said. “Standing here today all of us and all of our city are heartbroken, and we just ask for God’s guidance, his peace and his grace over the coming days.”

Police Chief Tommy Dennis remembered Best as “a rising star” in the department who was “very intelligent” and “well-liked by everyone.”

“Many have known him here in our city and our police department ever since he was a little boy because his mother and his father worked for the North Myrtle Beach Police Department and both of them retired from our city,” Hatley said.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team is investigating the crash.

Best is survived by his wife, Taylor, their two children, his parents and his mother- and father-in-law.

Cox Media Group