SC man charged with shooting 5 people at Rock Hill lounge caught by feds in Columbia
A suspect in the October mass shooting near a Rock Hill lounge has been captured in Columbia, police said, six weeks after five people were shot.
Sameal Raeqwon Johnson, 23, of Rock Hill, faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, said Lt. Michael Chavis of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Johnson is accused of shooting five people on Oct. 17: four men ages 23, 23, 29 and 35, and one woman, who is 25.
A team of Rock Hill police from the city’s violent crimes unit and federal agents from the U.S. Marshals Service took Johnson into custody in Richland County, Chavis said.
Police had been looking for Johnson since the shootings on Anderson Road in York County.
The shootings happened around 12:30 a.m. A patrol officer from the department who was nearby heard shots, Chavis said in October.
Police found that more than 30 shots had been fired, Chavis said then. Inside the lounge, police found one male shooting victim, Chavis said.
Four of the victims were taken to Piedmont Medical Center by private vehicles, where police found them, Chavis said. A fifth person was taken to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Johnson was returned to Rock Hill where he was denied bond in court late Monday. He faces up to 155 years in prison if convicted of all charges, under South Carolina law. Each count of attempted murder carries up to 30 years in prison.
Johnson has past convictions for weapons and robbery, according to York County online court records. Johnson was free on $3,500 bail at the time of the October shooting after an arrest for domestic violence in March, court records show.
This story was originally published November 30, 2020 at 6:59 PM with the headline "SC man charged with shooting 5 people at Rock Hill lounge caught by feds in Columbia."
