A 36-year-old North Myrtle Beach man with a history of more than 30 arrests is facing a new charge after his fiancée told police he choked her and struck her head until she lost consciousness inside a Comfort Inn room along South Highway 17. Shane Wesley Cook was charged with second-degree assault and battery following the Sept. 17 incident, and he was released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on a $10,000 bond.
According to the incident report, North Myrtle Beach police officers responded to the Comfort Inn around 11:30 p.m. that night, as detailed by WPDE. Cook's fiancée, who told officers she and Cook had been together for two months, said he choked her and hit her in the head with an open and closed hand. She told officers she lost consciousness during the incident. The report also states that Cook left the scene afterward because he knew police would be looking for him.
A Long Trail Of Arrests
Public records show Cook had been arrested at least 33 times by early 2026, including 11 arrests in 2025 alone, according to WMBF News. Those 11 arrests in 2025 produced 17 separate charges and more than $160,000 in combined bond, the station's earlier report noted. Among the pending cases from that stretch were accusations that Cook tried to kidnap a woman in Myrtle Beach in September 2025 and that he opened fire inside a resort room in March, with both cases still pending at the time.
One of those 2025 cases, detailed separately, accused Cook of kidnapping along with pointing and presenting firearms at a person, resisting arrest, and possession of cocaine, stemming from an incident on 14th Avenue South. He was released from J. Reuben Long Detention Center on a $127,480 bond in that case. In an earlier case, Cook — then 21 — was accused of threatening to strangle a woman if she refused to have sex with him and was charged with assault and battery with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct; he was released three hours later on a $10,000 bond, per the same account from WMBF News.
Guilty Plea Led To Probation, Not Prison
Just months before the latest arrest, in July, Cook pleaded guilty to aggravated breach of peace and unlawful use of 911. A judge sentenced him to five years in prison, a term that was suspended to three years of probation, the station's report states. Separately, charges including kidnapping, first-degree assault and battery, and second-degree non-violent burglary were dismissed after the victim in that case declined to cooperate with prosecutors.
The dossier's source material includes a conflicting account from Appen Media identifying a Shane Wesley Cook, age 31, as having been charged with DUI and disorderly conduct; it is unclear whether that report refers to the same individual given the discrepancies in reported ages across cases involving the name.
What Happens Next
Cook remains free on the $10,000 bond tied to the new second-degree assault and battery charge. It is not yet known whether the case will proceed to trial or how it might affect the probation tied to his July sentencing.
