SC felon recently released from prison arrested in Rock Hill murder, records show
A convicted felon out of prison for less than three months is charged with murder in a Rock Hill shooting death, according to police and court records.
Police arrested D’Aaron Boyd Colston, 30, of Rock Hill Wednesday afternoon in the April 17 shooting of Brandon Swilling outside a home on Flint Hill Street. Swilling was shot several times around 11 a.m. that day in a crime that shocked neighbors and sparked a city-wide investigation.
Many in the Flint Hill neighborhood on Rock Hill’s southern edge in the days after the shooting expressed outrage over the killing. Swilling, 33, was a beloved friend to many people. He would have turned 34 on Saturday.
Rock Hill police Lt. Michael Chavis declined to say what a possible motive was for the shooting, other than to say Swilling was in a place where he had every right to be when he was gunned down.
Colston is banned by state and federal law from having a gun from past convictions, records show. He is charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and possession of a weapon by a person convicted of certain crimes. Murder carries 30 years to life for a conviction in South Carolina.
York County online court records show Colston was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to burglary. He began a “supervised re-entry program” after leaving prison on Jan. 30, public online records from the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services show.
It remains unclear how Colston obtained the gun that police say was used to kill Swilling or if police have recovered the murder weapon.
