ROCK HILL, NC – The family of a guy says that he knocked on his neighbor’s door to share the gospel, but was shot multiple times. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO), on the other hand, has a different story. The person thought to be the shooter has not been charged.
Recent shootings in Kansas City, MO, and Ocala, FL, where older white homes shot black people through the door, have a lot in common with this case. William Griffin, 72, shot Jadyn McNeill five times through his door almost two weeks ago.
McNeill’s family and lawyers want to know why the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) still hasn’t arrested Roger Griffin. Now, as the young Black man fights for his life in a North Carolina hospital, his family has hired well-known national civil rights lawyers Harry Daniels and Carnell Johnson to help them get justice for him.
Griffin and the McNeill family have lived across the street from each other for about eight years, according to Griffin’s family. On Thursday, August 22, Jadyn knocked on Griffin’s neighbor’s door to talk and share his Christian beliefs. Griffin didn’t talk, though. Instead, he shot seven times through his door, hitting Jadyn five times.
Charles McNeill, Jadyn’s father, and an RCSO officer both got to the scene at the same time. They saw their son Griffin waving two guns while standing on the front lawn and bleeding from his wounds.
The father said that the deputy never told the angry and armed Griffin to put down his guns, pulled his own gun, or even took Griffin into custody. But it wasn’t long before the RCSO sent a press release to local media that made McNeill look like a would-be burglar instead of a victim of a killing. No crimes have been committed by McNeil.
McNeill said, “He was shot seven times, but only five hit him.” “That’s the guy across the street from me.” He (“my son”) is awake. He is a strong young man.
She was hit in the hand, arm, chest, and stomach. “When I got across the street to my son, he was still standing there with his hands up to that guy.” Jadyn is safe, but she is still in the ICU.
Bishop William Barber II, a national leader in religion and civil rights, is interested in the case and has said in a statement, “The preliminary facts of this case are distrusting.” A young man goes to share his religion and is shot five times through the door.
No one is arrested or the crime is looked into in more detail. That means there is no right or wrong. We demand action along with this young man, his family, and Harry Daniels, a national civil rights lawyer. The police need to do a full probe and make the right arrest.
Daniels said, “The simple fact is that the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office arrived at a scene where a white man who was still armed had shot and killed a young black man through his door.”
“Now they want us to believe that the victim, who has never been in trouble with the law, decided that day to break into his neighbor’s house while the neighbor was home and not wearing shoes.”
“That’s not just crazy. This is rude. In urgent care, Jadyn McNeill is fighting for his life, but the person who shot him is still free. He should get more than this.
“Think about going to a crime scene and seeing one man waving a gun and another person bleeding out in the front yard,” Johnson said. “If the races were switched, I promise you Griffin would be in jail right now.”
However, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office doesn’t agree with what the family says happened. They wrote on Facebook that the homeowner still thought Jadyn, who has never been in trouble with the law, was trying to break in after the first few shots were fired.
“From what we know, he knocks on the door,” Carnell Johnson, one of the family’s lawyers, said. “The family said that no one kicked or tried to break down the door.”
While the probe is still going on, the sheriff says that the district attorney will decide what charges to bring. The State Bureau of Investigation has also been called and is helping the police, the sheriff’s office said on Tuesday, September 3.
Made up of stories that were first published in Holy City Sinner and WSOC Charlotte.