Shooting near Rock Hill prompts school lockdown; York County SWAT responds
A York County SWAT team was called after a man was shot near Rock Hill Thursday afternoon, officials said.
The SWAT location was on Brownstone Drive in York County just outside the Rock Hill city limits, officials said. The shooting happened on Jefferson Avenue in the city of Rock Hill, police said.
York County Sheriff’s Office officials confirmed the SWAT incident but it ended without a suspect being apprehended.
A man was believed to be barricaded in a home on Brownstone Drive, said Trent Faris, spokesman for the sheriff’s office. Faris said the SWAT suspect was believed to be connected to the shooting earlier Thursday inside the city of Rock Hill on Jefferson Avenue.
The SWAT situation unfolded around 2 p.m. Around 5:45 p.m., SWAT officers determined the subject being sought was not inside the house, Faris said.
Deputies are still seeking the person believed to be involved in the earlier shooting, Faris said. The sheriff’s office also issued statements on Facebook and Twitter.
Dozens of police from several agencies spent more than three hours on the SWAT scene. York County’s SWAT team is mutijurisdictional and includes officers from police departments in Tega Cay, Fort Mill, York, Clover and Winthrop University. Police cars lined Brownstone Road to Finley Road.
The shooting that started the police activity in Rock Hill and York County happened around 1 p.m. on Jefferson Avenue, said Lt. Michael Chavis of the Rock Hill Police Department. Responding officers found the victim, a 49-year-old man, on the front steps of a home in the 800 block of Jefferson Avenue with a gunshot wound to his chest, Chavis said.
The victim was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte with life-threatening injuries, Chavis said.
The victim has not been identified.
As of 6 p.m., the person being sought by police for the shooting was not in custody, Chavis said.
Sheriff and police officials have not released the identity of the suspect in the shooting and the SWAT incident.
Rock Hill school district officials briefly placed Finley Road Elementary School on a preventative lockdown and notified police of the situation on Brownstone Drive, said Mychal Frost, spokesman for the school district. No students were found to live in the area of the incident location, Frost said.
The preventive measures were lifted near the end of the school day after it was determined the campus was safe, Frost said.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 3:10 PM.
