In the early evening of June 7, 2019, Robbin Scott Thompson, a 50-year-old male, found himself in the wrong place at the most tragic of times. A resident of Hickory Grove, South Carolina, he had accompanied his brother-in-law, Timothy Barber, to a home on Rivercrest Road in Rock Hill to pick up some custom-made cabinets. The cabinets were a special order for Barber's blind father.
Thompson, a truck driver and owner-operator, was known by loved ones as a devoted family man and a faithful church attendee who loved his Harley Davidson.
What should have been a simple errand turned into a scene of senseless violence. At approximately 7:45 p.m., both Thompson and Barber, 55, were shot and killed. They were simply there for a legitimate purpose, to collect the cabinets, when they were unexpectedly caught in a path of rage. The two men, described by family as being as close as brothers, had no connection to their assailant and were tragically and randomly targeted.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly led law enforcement to Jimar Frazier Neely, then 27 years old. Information from a subsequent burglary and shooting incident on Red River Road pointed to Neely as the suspect. When deputies attempted to pull over the Dodge Charger Neely was driving, he opened fire on them before fleeing on foot. He was captured shortly after the exchange of gunfire and sustained a non-life-threatening injury.
Neely was subsequently charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of Thompson and Barber, as well as three counts of attempted murder for shooting at the deputies. In 2022, the case came to a conclusion in court when Neely was found not guilty on all charges by reason of insanity. It was reported that Neely has schizophrenia and had not been taking his court-ordered medication at the time of the killings. Following the verdict, he was housed in a state mental hospital. In early 2025, a judge was set to decide on the possibility of Neely's release from the mental hospital into a community care facility.
