\NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – News 13 is learning more about the training of the North Myrtle Beach police officers involved in the pursuit of the med accused of robbing South State Bank last Wednesday morning.

Police say the men fired assault rifles at officers and at other people, but police never fired back.

Aaron Best is the sergeant who trains North Myrtle Beach officers, and while every situation is different, he told me the number one goal for all of law enforcement during a pursuit like the one last week is to keep the public safe.

“To receive so much fire and know not to fire back because the situation just didn’t present itself and understand that if we can keep our eyes on these guys and that we can keep them in a known area that we’re going to come out on the right side of this,” said Best.

In North Myrtle Beach, Best says officers are not allowed to shoot from moving vehicles even if they’re taking shots themselves.

“As our adrenaline starts to pump, we start to lose or those fine motor skills start to diminish, and we have to rely on gross motor skills. So, you know, you can think in a high speed chase like it was, the car’s moving, the car’s bouncing, and that’s the officer’s car. The suspect’s car is not staying still, and then you can’t expect him to use a fine motor skill like firing from a moving vehicle,” said Best.

The high-speed chase ended after an officer put out “stop sticks” and the robbers ran off into the woods, but still, police never fired a shot.

“We have to kind of take one extra second to think about how’s this going to impact the community,” said Best.

With all three suspects now behind bars, Best says his officers are doing well. While last week’s events are out of the ordinary for North Myrtle Beach Police, he says putting their lives on the line is nothing new.

“I don’t think any of them would have hesitated that day. As you can see, officer McCarter, you know, he maintained visual contact with that vehicle because he knew the severity of their crime, and we really wanted to get those guys in our custody so we would know where they are and not just running around those woods or, you know, committing a crime the next day against an innocent citizen,” said Best.

News13 spoke to the manager of South State Bank Monday, and she said they are not ready to talk about the Robbery, but they would like to thank law enforcement for their courage and the community for their support.