Myrtle Beach restaurant owner faces drug trafficking charges, lawsuit

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Myrtle Beach business owner whose restaurant was the center of a deadly shooting in 2020, is now back in the spotlight after being arrested on drug trafficking charges.

Gabe Jackson, the owner of Allen’s Food Basket, where two people died in a shooting in 2020, is now facing multiple drug charges. WMBF News also uncovered he’s listed in a lawsuit stemming from the double homicide.

Jackson testified in that trial and even revealed he and four others were shot the night of the shooting in October 2020.

TRIAL COVERAGE:

Myrtle Beach Police records show officers arrested him Monday on four charges.

Those charges include failure to stop for a blue light, manufacture and distribution of cocaine, trafficking cocaine, and possession of marijuana.

Online records show police arrested him in July for drug possession and identity fraud. In September records show he was charged for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Police also cited Jackson in October for operating without a business license.

In June of 2023, one of the shooting victims of the double homicide filed a lawsuit against Jackson and Allen’s Food Basket.

It states the “defendants failed to provide reasonable and adequate security measures at the time of the shooting to deter criminal activity.”

“I found that there were over 10 prior shootings within a five-mile radius of Allen’s Food Basket’s address since 2017,” Attorney Brooke Eaves Wright representing the victim said.

It also states the shooting was “foreseeable based on several prior shootings, murders, robberies, and crimes committed in the area and near the defendants’ premises.”

Myrtle Beach Police Department said so far this year there have been six calls for service at Allen’s Food Basket.

Jackson was denied bond on Tuesday during a hearing for his drug trafficking charges.

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