‘They’re gonna hurt me!’ screamed suspect in Rock Hill fatal hit-and-run, carjacking

The suspect in a fatal hit-and-run with a motorcyclist Saturday screamed “They’re gonna hurt me!” to a carjacking victim before stealing a vehicle from in front of a retired law enforcement officer’s house, according to police reports.

The carjacking and hit-and-run suspect, who has not been named by police, had not been caught as of Monday. A woman who allegedly had been with the suspect before the crash at Heckle Boulevard and Russell Street has not been located either, said Mark Bollinger, spokesman for the Rock Hill Police Department.

Gloria Finch, a retired detention officer from the York County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday that a repairman was in her Oates Street home working on her bathroom while his girlfriend was outside.

The suspect, who was described in police reports as a black male who was wearing no shoes, ran up to the girlfriend, screaming, “They’re gonna hurt me, they’re gonna hurt me!”

The suspect then got in the driver’s seat and started to drive away with the repairman’s girlfriend still in the 2000 white Jeep, before the girlfriend was able to get out of the vehicle.

Finch, the homeowner and former officer, said she was inside the home with family when the Jeep was stolen.

“The Jeep was stolen, and all of his tools were inside the Jeep and those are gone, too,” Finch said.

Joshua Moore, 21, of Rock Hill, the driver of the motorcycle, died Saturday when he was hit by the Chrysler 300. Just moments after the crash, police said, the carjacking happened.

The incident appeared to have started on Blake Street, across Heckle Boulevard from the carjacking site, police reports show. The driver and a woman were “involved in an altercation” on Blake Street outside the car, and the suspect left and “proceeded to aggressively drive away on Russell Street” before hitting the motorcycle that carried Moore, police reports show.

After Moore was struck, the Chrysler 300 smashed into nearby trees. The shoeless suspect fled the wrecked car, then ran northward about two blocks to where the Jeep was parked in front of Finch’s home.

Both the repairman and his girlfriend are from North Carolina, Finch said.

“Very nice people,” Finch said of the repairman and the girlfriend. “I hate that this happened.”

The Jeep with a North Carolina license plate number EAZ7956 has not been recovered, said Bollinger the police spokesman.

This story was originally published November 14, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "‘They’re gonna hurt me!’ screamed suspect in Rock Hill fatal hit-and-run, carjacking."