Police monitoring Wrightsville Beach and the surrounding waters broke up several fights and wrote a slew of alcohol citations, but, all in all, WBPD Chief Dan House said it was nothing too out of the ordinary of what law enforcement expects July 4.
“Obviously, we had more people…so that means more citations,” House said during a Saturday afternoon phone call, “but I think at the end it’s going to be pretty comparable to what we did last year.”
House said there was one serious injury reported so far.
“We had one girl with a pretty bad laceration on her leg, and she had to be transported,” he said. “They’re probably going to have to operate on it.”
House said the injury was sustained near Masonboro Island.
“I don’t know for sure, but I think there was a piece of metal in the water,” he said. “You just never know what’s under the water and she just stepped on it, or got caught up on it somehow and it tore her up pretty good.”
Several other laceration injuries were also reported in the Masonboro area, although they were less serious. House said they might have been caused by oyster shells.
He estimated there were between 3,000 and 4,000 people on Masonboro Island, which was twice as many as last year. Preliminary numbers indicated police patrolling Masonboro wrote 40 state citations, gave four verbal warnings and made six arrests. One boat driver was also cited by the Coast Guard for water taxying without a captain’s license and proper credentials.
“I don’t know what that fine is going to be yet, but it’s going to be big,” House said.
However, Mason Inlet, at the north end of Wrightsville Beach, was much less crowded than last year, with only 1,500 people. Although 10 deputies monitored the area, they only had to respond to one fight and write 15 state citations.
The biggest issue for which police wrote citations on the beach strand was alcohol violations, park ranger Shannon Slocum said.
“Alcohol, glass bottles, those seem to be the two top citations written out here on the beach strand,” he said. “It’s a quarter to six, and I’ve written about 20 citations, which is about twice as many as yesterday.”
Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue also made several rescues, WBOR Capt. Jeremy Owens said. Lifeguards flew yellow flags to indicate rough ocean conditions. Owens could not speak to the number and location of rescues, because he said, even around 6 p.m., he and his guards were still in the middle of responding to a number of situations.
Stay tuned for more updates throughout the weekend.
