Two men, 26 and 18, dead in Rock Hill shooting that disrupts ‘quiet street’

A middle-of-the-street shootout Wednesday night in Rock Hill left two men dead and a third seriously injured, while neighbors who call the area a safe, quiet street worry about safety.

Jimmy Williamson, 26, of Rock Hill, died at the scene from a gunshot wound, said Sabrina Gast, York County coroner.

Mekhi Rawlinson, 18, of York, died at Piedmont Medical Center after being shot, Gast said.

The third victim is hospitalized in Charlotte and has not yet been identified.

One of the victims died in the street after the 7 p.m. shooting in the 600 block of Blake Street, police said. Neighbors said that another victim pounded on their door, screaming out that he had been shot.

Police have not identified a suspect or a motive.

“Me and my wife had just come in from eating dinner and my daughter was on the couch when someone started pounding on the front door,” said resident Sammie Poage, 70.

Poage has lived 44 years on the block of Blake Street where the shooting happened. “I told whoever it was to go to the side door and the person yelled out he had been shot,” he said.

Poage said his wife called 911 and police and emergency workers arrived in minutes.

Another neighbor, John Cook, said he heard “about five gunshots,” then looked out his door to see what was happening. He also called 911. Cook said he saw one man trying to get another man into a vehicle.

Officers found two of the victims at the scene just off Heckle Boulevard. A third was located at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, where he was taken by a private vehicle after the shooting, said Mark Bollinger, spokesman for the Rock Hill Police Department.

The man who was taken to PMC later died, Bollinger said.

The surviving victim remains at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he was airlifted Wednesday night for treatment, police said.

Bollinger said Thursday that police are still investigating, but “investigators believe there are no persons at large who are a threat to the community.”

Poage, retired from General Tire, said Blake Street has been “a quiet street” previously and he would like to know from authorities what was going on and why it happened near his longtime home, where he lives with his family.

Cook, who has lived on the street for 34 years, said “this neighborhood is safe – it used to be.”

Williamson, one of the victims has a criminal history dating back to 2008, according to State Law Enforcement Division records. Williamson has previous convictions for assault and battery with intent to kill, weapons and drug crimes, and two other assault convictions, records show.

A SLED check for Rawlinson showed no criminal record.

This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Two men, 26 and 18, dead in Rock Hill shooting that disrupts ‘quiet street’."