Published: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 / Updated: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 01:25 AM

1 dead, 1 critically injured in east Rock Hill shootout

Roads, power, schools affected after city sees send fatal shooting in days

A Rock Hill teenager is dead and another person is critically injured after a shootout Friday afternoon that closed roads, locked down schools and shut off power to nearby houses for hours.

Eighteen-year-old Tommy Leon Barber Jr. of Rock Hill was shot at a home on Catherine Street after “multiple suspects” came to the house armed with weapons, said Rock Hill Police Lt. Brad Redfearn.

Barber died at Piedmont Medical Center midafternoon, York County Coroner Sabrina Gast said. She would not say Friday how many gunshot wounds he suffered or where on his body he was shot.

A second person was shot in the incident, Redfearn said. He declined to give a name, age or description but said the person was listed in critical condition Friday evening.

Police found that person in a small brown car that crashed into a utility pole several feet away on Workman Street, Redfearn said. The crash split two poles in half, cutting off power to the entire neighborhood.

Redfearn wouldn't say how the incident progressed from the Catherine Street house to the utility pole on Workman Street. Those details, he said, are still under investigation.

One Workman Street resident, who didn't want to be identified, told The Herald he heard a “loud bang … like fireworks,” then looked out the window and saw a car that had crashed into the utility pole by his home.

When the man hurried down to help, he said the driver's face was covered in blood.

“He started yelling, ‘He's shooting at me, he's shooting at me,' and I went back to the house to call police,” the man said.

Friday night, no one had been arrested in the shootings, and Redfearn said police were still trying to determine who were the victims and who were the suspects in the case.

He couldn't say how many suspects were involved, as it might hinder the investigation, he said.

Barber is the second teenager in eight days to be murdered in Rock Hill. On Oct. 1, Tyrone King, also 18, was robbed, shot and killed on a Byars Street porch in the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood.

Two people have been charged in King's death. Donte Reid, 17, and 21-year-old Samantha Ervin remained in custody Friday with no bond.

Charges were dropped against a third suspect.

Redfearn wouldn't say whether the two incidents were related.

Schools locked down

Some schools in eastern Rock Hill were placed on lockdown Friday afternoon because of the nearby shooting and police activity, said Superintendent Lynn Moody.

The district placed Belleview Elementary School, the Flexible Learning Center and the Rebound program on lockdown for several hours, and Castle Heights Middle School also was on lockdown for a shorter period, she said.

During a lockdown, no one is allowed to enter or leave a school to ensure student safety, Moody said, and schools are placed on lockdown whenever any sort of activity is taking place near the school that might potentially affect student safety.

Police contacted the district and suggested the lockdown, Moody added.

Back at the scene near the intersection of Albright Road and East Black Street, city police officers and York County Sheriff's deputies closed roads and used a bloodhound unit to track suspects.

SWAT team members also responded after Redfearn said neighbors reported “many concerns” about the incident. Officers found “conflicting information” while canvassing the neighborhood, which led the SWAT Team to a house on 8th Street, but no suspects were found inside, Redfearn said.

Community responds

Bystanders who stood in their yards, on porches and around the neighborhood's basketball goal were hesitant to talk on the record about the incident.

But two days before the shooting, around 30 community members from around the city gathered at a Rock Hill church to talk about how to prevent teens from killing one another on the streets.

The meeting was prompted by Tyrone King's shooting, said organizer Sherman Porterfield, who is president of the Black Male Summit Committee.

“If you live here, if you work here, if you worship here, then you should feel some form of accountability to where you live,” Porterfield told Wednesday's crowd.

The crowd included Marvin Rogers, who lives on Flint Street less than a mile from Friday's shootings.

Rogers, a bilingual interpreter for Rock Hill schools, suggested on Wednesday that the group hold a youth forum regularly to let teenagers talk about their troubles.

By Friday evening, after the news of the shooting in the neighborhood where he jogs each week, Rogers said he was ready to “stop talking and start doing.”

‘Few bad apples'

Rogers didn't hear the gunfire Friday, but shots are a familiar sound in his neighborhood, he said.

Gang graffiti decorates the tree and lamp post in front of Rogers' apartment, and several times he's had to get down on the floor after hearing shots late in the night.

He says he likes Flint Street because, among the drug houses, there are newlyweds and elderly couples who he feels safe living near.

But “we have a few bad apples spoiling the whole bunch, and they're fighting us for the future of the community,” Rogers said.

“They're winning the battle.”