Two men get prison time for high-speed Rock Hill police chase with shots fired
Both men involved in a high-speed Rock Hill police chase where shots were fired at pursuing officers received prison sentences after pleading guilty.
No officers or members of the public were hit by gunfire as officers pursued Ronald Eugene Wilson Jr. and Andrew Gunnar Johnson for more than 20 miles on Jan. 23. Police didn’t shoot back. The chase started after the armed robbery of a Circle K store on Cherry Road near Interstate 77. It went south from Rock Hill into York County and Chester County.
Johnson, 24, of Charlotte, drove the getaway car during the chase. Judge Bill McKinnon sentenced Johnson to eight years prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty at the Moss Justice Center to conspiracy, accessory to a felony after the fact and failure to stop for blue lights, according to prosecutors and court records.
Wilson, 37, of Virginia, fired six times from the car during the pursuit after he robbed the store, prosecutor Misti Shelton said. Judge Dan Hall sentenced Wilson to 18 years after he pleaded guilty last month to armed robbery, assault and battery for the shooting and weapons charges, Shelton said.
“This whole situation was inherently dangerous for law enforcement and the public,” Shelton said Wednesday after court. ”Even though no one was hurt, there was the potential for people in the community to be hurt or killed.”
The crime traumatized the clerk robbed at gunpoint while working alone at the store, Shelton said.
