‘I forgive you’: Mother of one victim in deadly Rock Hill shooting speaks to suspect, no bond set

ROCK HILL, S.C. (WBTV) - A 17- and 16-year-old have been arrested following a shootout that left three teenagers dead on Tuesday night in Rock Hill.

Police have arrested Ahmik Coleman and issued two murder warrants against him. He will be charged as an adult. His bond hearing was on Thursday.

A 16-year-old female who drove Coleman’s victims to Gist Road during the incident was also arrested. She was charged with murder and was transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

An emotional moment played out in court, where a shooting suspect not only faced a judge, but the mother of one of the shooting victims.

WBTV first broke you the news of this triple homicide yesterday--around Westover Circle near Cherry Road. Now that mother is forgiving her son’s accused killer. Today’s first appearance shed new light on what played out before, during and after the deadly shooting.

Police say Coleman came up to the two victims lying wounded in the street and “executed them” by shooting and killing them, details family members in court heard for the first time.

”There is nothing that can bring him back to me,” says Evante Hart’s mother, Jaclyn Waston. ”I prayed three times before I even got up here to this podium.”

Watson spoke to the judge, wanting to advocate for her son as the only mother he knew. She explained he was his adoptive mother.

”I may not have carried him the 9 months. I may not have endured the labor of him. But he was mine,” says Watson.

Hart was shot by Coleman after police say he started shooting at the car Coleman sat in. Watson, in court, recognized her son’s involvement.

”Even though I’ve done all I could, my son was not perfect,” says Watson. “I know what he was capable of.”

But after learning minutes before her speech that Coleman came back to shoot and kill Hart and another teen. …Watson, like a few others who came up to speak, asked for bond to be denied. No bond was set because the seriousness of these charges doesn’t allow the municipal judge to do so.

”I never knew my son had a chance to live…I did not know that,” she says. ”I don’t have any hate in my heart for him your honor. Lord knows I don’t. But I don’t want him on the street to be harming anybody else.”

But in a move so surprising, no one in court dared to move, the judge granted Watson’s request to turn and forgive Coleman for what happened.

”I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, I do forgive you,” she says.

Coleman was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle near the 800 block of Gist Road, with one person in the driver’s seat, and another in the backseat, when two other teens, both of whom were in the roadway, began firing into the vehicle.

According to the Rock Hill Police Department, Coleman returned fire, killing the two people in the street.

The person in the driver’s seat, who the York County Coroner’s Office has since identified as 16-year-old O’Marian Small, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kam’ran Brevard, 16, and Evanta Hart, 17, were shot in the roadway and died as a result of their injuries.

Coleman was struck in the hand and was transported to the hospital for treatment.

The person in the backseat of the vehicle exited and fled the scene.

Coleman will have a bond hearing on April 28 in Rock Hill Municipal Court.

Detectives are still investigating the case, but say there is no threat to the public.

Coleman is expected back in court in July where he will face another judge and get a chance at getting a bond.

Related: Investigation continues into Rock Hill shooting that killed three

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