Murder or self-defense? Rock Hill mom watched doorbell camera as teen son was killed
The mother of a Rock Hill teen shot to death in January watched live on a doorbell camera as her son was gunned down the day after he got his high school diploma.
More, Felix Alvarez’s sister was standing just feet away as Alvarez, 18, was shot in the head, prosecutors say.
The lawyer for Ryan Chase Price, who is facing a murder charge, admits Price shot Alvarez Jan. 17 at a party of underage drinkers, but claims it was self-defense after Alvarez attacked Price first on the porch and then at a truck outside where the fatal shots were fired.
Price, now 21 but who was 20 at the time, made his first York County criminal court appearance Thursday after being arrested after the party on Old Friendship Road and held in jail. He wants bail as the case moves forward.
The Herald was the only media organization in court Thursday.
Prosecutor: Price shot Alvarez after using racial, anti-gay slurs
Alvarez, 18, died after Price shot him three times at the party where the attendees were under 21 and there was alcohol, prosecutor Matthew Hogge told visiting Judge Eugene Griffith. Witnesses told police that Price, who is listed as white in jail records, shouted anti-gay slurs and used the racial epithet “I will shoot you n-words,” Hogge said.
A witness told police Alvarez did not touch Price on the porch during an argument yet when Alzarez tried to return a cooler to Price in a truck, Price shot Alvarez three times, Hogge said.
Kandi Duran, the homeowner and mother of the victim, was in Arizona working as a travel nurse at the time but was told of the incident and watched it unfold live on the doorbell camera.
“His mother was watching over video as her son was killed,” Hogge told Griffith. “His sister was feet from him when he was shot and killed. He was 18 years old.”
The video was played in court and showed people talking and arguing before the shots can be heard in the dark background.
Duran told the judge no mother should ever have to watch an incident unfold on video as a son dies.
“He was shot three times at his home, the place where he should have been the safest,” Duran said in court.
Nothing will bring her son back after she had to bury him under “such senseless and violent circumstances,” Duran said. She, like Hogge, asked that Price remain jailed for safety reasons.
Defense attorney: Alvarez “ferocious” attack on Price before shooting
Price, of nearby Lancaster, did not speak in court. Many members of his family were there. Bill McGuire of Charleston, Price’s defense lawyer, told Griffith that Alvarez attacked Price on the porch first in what he said one witness called a “ferocious” assault.
“They tried to leave and Ryan gets jumped,” said McGuire.
Then, after Price was “beat down” near the house, Alvarez went toward the truck where Price was trying to leave, according to McGuire. Price was “scared” when he called out “I’ll shoot,” after finding a gun in the console of the truck, McGuire said.
“When his assailant (Alvarez) came to the truck for more, that’s when he (Price) shot him,” McGuire said. “All signs point to self-defense.”
McGuire claimed in court Alvarez “was not a choir boy” and told the judge Alvarez had posted on social media with money and drugs.
The judge did not rule Thursday on whether he would grant bail to Price, saying he wanted to “think about it” before deciding. No trial date has been set.
