Third suspect now arrested in Rock Hill shootout where 3 teens died
A third suspect from South Carolina who had been sought for more than a month in a Rock Hill shootout where three teens were killed has been captured and charged with murder, police said.
Chris’tavious Xavier Jiquion Caldwell, 21, was found in Great Falls in Chester County, said Lt. Michael Chavis of the Rock Hill Police Department. Rock Hill police and Chester County Sheriff’s Office deputies took Caldwell into custody, Chavis said.
Caldwell is accused of being in a car with three teens -- a girl now charged with murder and two teens who were killed in the shootout. That car was driven to Gist Road in Rock Hill for a planned execution-style hit on a teen in a different car, police and prosecutors have said in previous court hearings.
Caldwell is being held at the Rock Hill jail.
Details of the incident
Rock Hill police detective Tayler Tucker and 16th Circuit prosecutor Whitney Payne have previously said in court that the shootout on April 25 was a gunfight prompted by a dispute between two teen girls about a boy.
Kam’ran Brevard, 16, and Evanta Hart, 17, both of Rock Hill, died in the shooting. Omarian Small, 16, of Lake Wylie, also was killed.
Police have said in court and in written statements that Ahmik Coleman, 17, and Small were together in a parked car with an unidentified third teen. That car was targeted in the shooting, officials have said in court.
The suspect now identified as Caldwell, the teen girl, Brevard and Hart were in the other car, police and prosecutors have said.
In the initial shooting, Small was fatally wounded in the driver’s seat. Coleman, who was seated in the front passenger seat, was wounded and fired back at Brevard and Hart, who had shot at him and others. Brevard and Hart were wounded, police said.
Caldwell is charged with murder in the death of Small, according to a written statement from the Rock Hill Police Department.
Caldwell had been sought since late April, Chavis said.
Two other teens have been charged with murder in the deaths. A girl now 17, who was 16 at the time, is charged with murder in connection with Small’s death. Police and prosecutors say the girl knew Brevard and Hart were going to shoot at the car that Small was in.
Coleman left the scene after the initial shooting and returned. He is charged with fatally shooting Brevard and Hart who were wounded and lying in the street, police and prosecutors said previously in court.
Coleman was arrested on two counts of murder the day after the incident.
The girl suspect is charged as a juvenile but prosecutors are seeking to have her face trial as an adult.
What happens now?
Caldwell has a previous conviction in York County from 2020 for unlawful carrying of a pistol, South Carolina court records show.
Court records show Caldwell was found not guilty in a trial in March of this year -- a month before the Gist Road shootout - in an unrelated trial on a charge of unlawful carrying of a pistol, court records show.
Caldwell was expected in court later Thursday on the new murder charge.
Three previous judges, including one Rock Hill city court judge and two York County Family Court judges, have denied bond to the two other suspects accused of murder in the case.
Check back for updates on this story.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 10:20 AM.
