MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Myrtle Beach police say they arrested one man who is accused of trying to set another man’s hotel room on fire.
Records from the Myrtle Beach Police Department website say 36-year-old Clayton Garrett Byers was charged with arson, attempts to burn, willful and malicious.
According to the police report, officers were dispatched to 400 North Ocean Boulevard Monday for a possible burglary. On arrival, police found two hotel workers holding the suspect against a car.
The report says the victim told police the incident started when he left his hotel room and ran into the suspect in the stairwell. The victim says the suspect made a “racially motivated comment to the victim and made a hand gesture of shooting a gun in his direction”.
The report says the victim went to the store and then returned to his room for the night. As he was laying down, he allegedly smelled gasoline. The incident report says when the victim opened the door to see if the smell was coming from outside the room, he saw the suspect pouring what smelled like gasoline out of a soda bottle on to the victim’s door.
The police report says the suspect ran down the stairs where he later fell in the parking lot and continued to run towards the boardwalk and then into the Holiday Sands North Tower parking lot where he was stopped by security until officers arrived on scene.
Police say the suspect smelled of gasoline and he had a white lighter in his pants pocket.
Myrtle Beach police say the incident is still under investigation.
