Rock Hill victim identified, but no arrests and few details on latest killing
In a driveway on Flint Hill Street in Rock Hill Tuesday morning stood a vase of flowers. Yet four days after a man was killed on the residential street in the quiet of a late morning, police have not made an arrest and very little information about what happened has been released.
The shooting happened around 11 a.m. Friday just south of where Flint Hill Street intersects with Heckle Boulevard near the city’s southern edge. Late Monday, York County Coroner Sabrina Gast identified the victim as Brandon Swilling, 33, of Rock Hill.
A statement from the coroner said Swilling’s 34th birthday would have been this weekend on Saturday, April 25.
Not only is it unclear who shot Swilling, but why.
Rock Hill Police Department Lt. Michael Chavis said Tuesday detectives are continuing to work the case, but no details about what officers have learned can be released because of the ongoing probe. Police have not said why Swilling was there when he was killed, but Chavis said officers believe Swilling had a legitimate reason to be there.
On social media, those who knew Swilling talked about what a good person he was. The hashtag “#Justicefor Brandon” has been circulated as those who knew Swilling and loved him posted about him.
In February there were two fatal shootings in the city within a three-day span — including a double homicide in which one of the victims was 4 years old and the other was 19 years old. That incident was on Frank Street across Heckle Boulevard in the same Flint Hill neighborhood. A person is in jail charged with the Frank Street shootings.
Tuesday near the crime scene a few neighbors drove by. A mail carrier made deliveries. All passed by the driveway with the flowers in it.
Alicia Smith, neighborhood association president, told The Herald on Tuesday in a phone interview the violence needs to stop. Guns must be put down, Smith said. She said neighbors have been told by police of the Friday shooting. She said she and others are praying for Swilling and his family.
“When one person in our community gets hurt, it hurts all of us,” Smith said.
Funeral and memorial information for Swilling have not yet been released.
Want to Help?: Anyone with information about the April 17 shooting of Brandon Swilling is asked to contact the Rock Hill Police Department at 803-329-7293.
