Accused Rock Hill killer of brothers ages 4, 19, was out from fourth prison term
The South Carolina man charged with the killings of a 4-year-old child and his older brother in Rock Hill Tuesday night during a shootout is on supervised release after he got out in October from a five-year prison sentence for domestic violence, state officials confirmed to The Herald.
It is the fourth time Cedric Akeen Creighton, 34, of Lancaster, had been in prison in South Carolina since 2013, records show.
The S.C. Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services said that Creighton is currently under supervision in Lancaster County, according to agency spokesman Scott Hawkins.
In the Rock Hill shootout on Frank Street, Creighton and 19-year-old Jamareon Kimble exchanged gunfire, police said. Kimble and his 4-year-old brother, Jakolby Clifton, died, according to the York County Coroner’s Office.
Deputy Coroner Christina Westover confirmed to The Herald on Thursday that the two victims were siblings.
Rock Hill police charged Creighton with two counts of murder, gun possession during a violent crime, and possession of a weapon by a person convicted of certain crimes.
It is unclear how he got a gun that the charge says he is banned from having. Police said Creighton knew Kimble but have not said why he was at the Rock Hill house.
A State Law Enforcement Division record check shows Creighton is also banned under federal law from possessing a gun.
Domestic violence sentence
Creighton started what is called a “supervised re-entry program” in October after the 2024 conviction for first-degree domestic violence, according to the South Carolina probation agency’s website and Lancaster County online court records. That supervision was set to finish in two months, on April 6, records show.
Creighton was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for his most recent conviction for domestic violence but did not serve five years because of state law. Sentencing law requires people convicted of domestic violence in the first-degree to serve at least one-third of the sentence before being considered for parole, said Chrysti Shain, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Corrections.
Prison and court records show he got 298 days credit towards the five-year sentence for the time he was in jail from his August 2023 arrest to his June 2024 conviction on that charge.
He spent a year and four months in prison, which is the one-third of his sentence , before his supervised release on Oct. 1, 2025, according to Shain and prison records.
Prison record dates back to 2013
Creighton also has previous convictions in Lancaster County dating back to 2013 for domestic violence, weapons, assault and battery by a mob, and other charges, South Carolina prison and online court records show.
He was in prison from October 2013 to 2016, then again from October 2018 to April 2019, according to records sent to The Herald by Department of Corrections spokesperson Chrysti Shain.
After another conviction, he was sent to prison again from September 2021 to April 2022, then from June 2024 to October 2025 for the most recent domestic violence conviction, state records show.
Creighton remains hospitalized after being wounded in the shootout. Police said he will be served arrest warrants when he is released, then brought to the Rock Hill jail, and then will make a first court appearance.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 1:47 PM.
