Police: Rock Hill teen attempted murder suspect also ‘involved’ in a homicide investigation

Three women who were inside a Rock Hill home earlier this month when bullets pierced the walls, windows and furniture choked back tears Thursday while asking a judge to deny bond for the teen police say tried to shoot the people inside.

Quinterius Miller, 17, of Rock Hill, is charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and one count each of possession of a pistol by a person under 18, unlawful carry of a pistol and discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.

Miller is accused of shooting into a Frank Street home occupied by multiple people on Aug. 2. He was arrested late Wednesday by Chester County authorities.

“He is also part of an ongoing homicide investigation,” Rock Hill Police Detective Ryan Thomas said during Miller’s bond hearing Thursday. “I can’t say at this time which part of that he is, but he is included in that investigation.”

Thomas said police requested a bond denial “so that we can continue that investigation without any hindrance to it or any potential destruction of evidence or anything like that.”

Police say Miller fired multiple shots into a home on the 500 block of Frank Street on Aug. 2.

A woman who lives in the home told officers she and several other people were sitting in the living room when she saw a man between 16 and 18 years old wearing black basketball shorts and no shirt in the front window with a black gun. He then fired the gun into the home.

Another resident told police he was coming out of a back bedroom when he was shot in the leg.

“I had two children in there at the time,” one person said during Thursday’s hearing. “The day before the shooting happened, I had just celebrated my son’s first birthday. He could have easily killed one of my kids or me.”

A second person said the Frank Street home belongs to a family member of hers who watches her children, ages 2 years and 10 months, while she works. She was in the home with her 2-year-old when the shooting happened and said the event “scarred him.”

A third person said she was sitting in a chair across from the main window in the living room when the shooting happened.

“There’s two bullet holes in that chair,” she said. “If I had been leaning to my left just 2 inches, I would have been hit in my head.”

The woman, who is pregnant, said her boyfriend was sitting on the same chair and was grazed by bullets on his head and thigh.

“My niece and nephew talk about it all the time,” she said. “My nephew still runs around the house, scared. To hear somebody bust out laughing, or if we drop anything, this baby just runs. He’s only 1. He doesn’t understand what’s going on.”

Miller’s mother, with whom he lives, told the judge a bond would allow their family to get Miller “some help.”

“My son is only 17. He’s just starting his life,” she said. “He is a child still, and I’m trying to raise him the right way. But things happen. I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t there.”

Miller was appointed a public defender Thursday. He faces up to 30 years in prison for each attempted murder charge.

On Aug. 9, one week after the shooting in which Miller is charged, a 30-year-old man was shot to death outside a home on Frank Street.

No arrests have been made in the second shooting, and a Rock Hill Police spokesman said Thursday it’s unclear if the two incidents are related.

This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Police: Rock Hill teen attempted murder suspect also ‘involved’ in a homicide investigation."