---
title: "Socastee Welfare Check Ends in Officer Gunfire"
url: https://www.heremyrtlebeach.com/2026/10/17/socastee-officer-shooting-kyle-smith-charged/
date: 2026-10-17T06:39:06-04:00
modified: 2026-10-17T06:39:06-04:00
author: "Alisha T. Quintero"
categories: ["Crime"]
site: "HERE Myrtle Beach"
attribution: "HERE Myrtle Beach"
---

# Socastee Welfare Check Ends in Officer Gunfire

> SOCASTEE, S.C. — State agents have charged a 38-year-old Socastee man after a Horry County Police Department welfare check on Hayes Point Circle turned into an Oct. 15 gunfire exchange and a neighborhood standoff. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said the responding Horry County officer met Kyle James Smith coming out a rear door

*Source: [HERE Myrtle Beach](https://www.heremyrtlebeach.com/2026/10/17/socastee-officer-shooting-kyle-smith-charged/) — October 17, 2026 by Alisha T. Quintero*

SOCASTEE, S.C. — State agents have charged a 38-year-old Socastee man after a Horry County Police Department welfare check on Hayes Point Circle turned into an Oct. 15 gunfire exchange and a neighborhood standoff.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said the responding Horry County officer met Kyle James Smith coming out a rear door armed. Smith aimed a handgun toward the officer, and the officer returned fire. Smith was not struck, retreated inside, and the officer discharged a second round.

More Horry County officers and the department SWAT unit arrived. Commanders learned a child was still in the house. Smith later sent the child out; medics checked the child and found no injuries. Smith then gave himself up. SLED reported no physical injuries to anyone on scene.

SLED later accused Smith of aiming a firearm at a person and putting a child in unlawful danger. Prosecutors in the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office will take the case. Horry County police asked SLED to run the criminal inquiry into the shooting.