By Jonathan Hampton 
What began as an ordinary traffic stop in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, turned into a pivotal moment in a violent crime investigation, thanks to the vigilance and instincts of Officer Kayla Wallace of the North Myrtle Beach Police Department.
In the early morning hours of May 28, 2023, Officer Wallace was patrolling Highway 17 just 30 minutes before her shift was scheduled to end when she spotted a white Jeep run a red traffic signal.
Wallace immediately turned on her patrol lights and pulled the Jeep over. Inside the vehicle were two people: a female driver who appeared visibly shaken and a male passenger whose presence soon became suspicious.
The female driver’s body language and demeanor caught Officer Wallace’s attention. She looked distressed and uneasy, barely able to make eye contact, suggesting that something was amiss beyond a routine traffic violation.
When Wallace first approached the Jeep, the driver opened her door, appearing unsteady. Concerned about officer safety, Wallace instructed her to close the door and continue speaking through the window.
The male passenger chimed in, explaining the windows did not work, but Wallace noticed subtle signs of distress. The driver told Wallace she felt nauseous, adding to the uneasiness of the encounter.
The situation reached a critical moment when the driver, while the male passenger wasn’t watching, silently mouthed the words “Help me” — a desperate plea that Officer Wallace immediately noticed.
Understanding that something was seriously wrong, Wallace acted quickly. She asked the male passenger to step out of the Jeep and placed him in the back of her patrol car to separate him from the driver.
Once the passenger was secured, Wallace returned to the Jeep to speak alone with the female driver. At that point, the woman revealed she had been forced at gunpoint to drive the vehicle, making the encounter no longer just a traffic stop.
According to the police report, the distressed woman told Officer Wallace that the passenger, later identified as Collins Bates, had just shot someone minutes earlier before forcing her into the Jeep and making her flee the scene.
Moments after this revelation, the police dispatcher issued a “Be On the Lookout” (BOLO) alert for a white Jeep involved in a nearby shooting incident, confirming that Wallace had, in fact, stopped a vehicle connected to violent crime.
At that point, other county law enforcement units were called in to assist. They arrived at the traffic stop and took the male passenger into custody without further incident.
The arrested man was identified as 29‑year‑old Collins Xavier Manning Bates, a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, who was wanted in connection with a recent shooting in the county.
According to subsequent police records and arrest warrants, Bates had allegedly shot a person outside a local restaurant called The Waterway House, located in the greater Myrtle Beach area.
After the shooting, Bates is accused of threatening another individual and forcing the female driver to transport him away from the scene at gunpoint, igniting a rapid law enforcement response.
Thanks to Officer Wallace’s proactive approach and quick thinking, Bates was located within minutes of the shooting, ending what could have been a far more dangerous situation for
