Fatal Hickory pool party shooting was gang-related, prosecutor reveals
A shooting at a pool party near Hickory that killed a man and injured at least a dozen other people was gang-related, a prosecutor said Friday in revealing new details about the case.
Police have now determined that at least four shooters fired from a hill at 103 people at the party early Sunday, Catawba County sheriff’s Major Aaron Turk told reporters outside the courthouse Friday after bond hearings for five suspects in the case.
In court Friday, Assistant District Attorney Tim Gould put the number of partygoers at 100, up from 80 that was announced in court two days earlier.
“This was gang-related,” Gould told District Court Judge Mark Killian in requesting that four suspects charged with attempted first-degree murder be returned to jail without bond.
“He fired into the crowd,” Gould said of one defendant, Izaiah Kane Mitchell, 18. “A very violent offense.”
“Our investigation has revealed that gang motives were part of this tragedy,” Turk told reporters after the hearing. “We’re still unraveling that as part of the larger investigation, and we’re asking our federal partners to look at that specifically.”
He said gang initiation may have played a role.
Sheriff’s investigators also have identified the gang the shooters belonged to but are not releasing the name, Turk said. Still, he said, each shooter may have had a different motive for firing into the crowd.
Bonds for suspects
Killian ordered Mitchell and suspect Toland Huff Jr., 20, to remain jailed without bond because of prior criminal charges. The judge gave Zachary Michael Bates, 22, a $300,000 bond, and Ke’andre O’neal Mack, 19, a $500,000 bond because they had no prior offenses.
All are charged with attempted first-degree murder.
At 5:15 p.m. Friday, Turk said 10 more counts of attempted first-degree murder have been filed against Huff, Bates, Mitchell and Mack.
Each received no bond and remains in the custody of the Catawba County jail, Turk said in a statement. First court appearances on the new charges are scheduled for June 9, he said.
“Additional charges are pending,” Turk added.
On Wednesday, Sheriff Don Brown and Hickory Police Chief Reed Baer criticized the $200,000 bond set by the judge for a fifth suspect, Garon Nathaniel Killian, 20.
Killian was already out of jail on bond from charges in a shooting in April in Hickory. He was charged with seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, going armed to the terror of the public, and discharging a firearm in the Hickory city limits.
A judge on Thursday revoked his bond in the April shooting case, WBTV first reported.
Also Friday, judge Killian gave Zoe Makenna Braswell, 18, a $75,000 bond on a felony count of accessory after the fact to attempted first-degree murder in the pool shooting case.
Killian also scheduled probable cause hearings for the defendants on June 26.
The Catawba sheriff, SBI and FBI continue to investigate the shooting from early morning on May 31. On Wednesday, investigators revealed that shots were fired from a hillside toward people at the pool, at the home at 1125 Walnut Acres Drive in the Mountain View community.
The party was advertised as a topless pool party on social media. However, no one was nude in footage from the party.
Shawn Patrick Hood, 58, of Lenoir, was shot and killed. Eight to 10 others were injured from gunfire, and several others were injured while fleeing, police said.
The barrage of bullets sent a swarm of party-goers to an adjacent neighborhood on Winding Oak Drive trying to escape the shooting and find help.
Two others are charged in the case.
Raekwon Malik Craig, 21, of Taylorsville, and Patrick Lee Tolbert, 22, of Hickory, are accused of allowing alcohol to minors as part of the party planning.
Mom of defendant “distraught”
Mack’s mother, Kendra Mack, addressed reporters after her son’s hearing.
“It was a little good news that we can say we went from no bond to $500,000. But I am, as a mother, hurt and distraught. I love my son,” she said.
“As a family, we’re going to get through this.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM.