One year ago, 11 people were injured and one man was killed when gunfire rained down on a pool party in Catawba County.
District Attorney Scott Reilly was on his way to church with his wife on June 1, 2025, when he received a phone call from the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office. The call was to inform Reilly that there was a mass shooting.
“Getting that phone call, I'm not going to forget it,” Reilly said. “Going over to the scene and having Sheriff (Don) Brown and the SBI and the FBI walk me over that crime scene. I won't forget it for a long time. I just hated it for our community, because you know things like that just don't happen in our community.”
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District Attorney Scott Reilly, right, announces 63 attempted
first-degree murder indictments against six men linked to a mass
shooting at a pool party in Mountain View. Catawba County Sheriff
Don Brown stands behind Reilly during the press conference on June
24, 2025.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
Six men are accused of planning and carrying out the shooting along Walnut Acres Drive. One woman was charged with aiding and abetting some of the accused shooters, according to court documents.
The men are Garon Nathaniel Killian, Toland Huff Jr., Izaiah Kane Mitchell, Zachary Michael Bates, Ke’andre O’neal Mack and Charles Rodell Kincaid III. The woman is Zoe Makenna Braswell.
Killian, Huff, Mitchell, Bates, Mack and Kincaid are each facing 63 counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Braswell is charged with four counts of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
The shooting happened in the early morning hours of June 1, 2025. More than 100 people were gathered at a pool party at 1125 Walnut Acres Drive. The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies gathered 80 shell casings from the scene. The investigation determined that 50 of the shell casings came from shots fired by four gunmen who were standing on a hill on a neighboring property. The other shell casings were from partygoers who fired back, according to previous statements from the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.
Shawn Patrick Hood, 57, of Lenoir, was killed. The sheriff's office said Hood was killed accidentally in crossfire by someone shooting in self-defense.
Ten other people were shot and injured. One person was injured while trying to escape the gunfire. The victims' ages ranged from 16 to 53.
“In my 38 years in law enforcement, that is the most unusual and unique crime scene that I have seen,” Catawba County Sheriff Don Brown said. “You had all those people, you had all these cars parked in the front yard of the house, and you had law enforcement everywhere from several different agencies, to include the SBI was there and the FBI was there.”
Brown said the shooting rattled the residents in the Walnut Acres development.
“When you have a neighborhood that's affected, it affects so many people. That bothers me,” Brown said. “We're tasked with protecting lives and property. That is our primary focus, is protecting life and property. When people are traumatized to that degree, that's bothersome.”
Brown commended the Hickory Police Department and Catawba County EMS for their immediate response to assist while the crime scene was still active.
“Our officers arrive on scene. Hickory PD is rolling in, sending everybody they had, and then the paramedics arrive,” Brown said. “They're going into this active shooting crime scene with our folks. They're not trained, they're not armed, but they were very courageous. They were there with our folks, ready to treat patients, which was just incredible to me. There were probably 20 cars still there on scene, maybe more than that, and almost every car had a gun in it. You're talking about these paramedics that are going into that, not prepared for it at all.”
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Investigators use a metal detector to collect evidence at the
scene of a mass shooting along Walnut Acres Drive in Mountain View
on June 1, 2025.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation were on the scene to help within a few hours. Brown said the directors and agents in charge of those agencies called him immediately to ask what was needed by the sheriff’s office to help with the investigation. James Barnacle, then FBI agent for North Carolina, called Brown from Washington, D.C., to say he was getting on a plane.
“I've never seen so many hours and professionalism put into a case by law enforcement before. All working together with their partners,” Reilly said. “(Barnacle) came from Washington, D.C., and he met me about the same time I got to the scene. I think that was around noon, or so. So that tells you how quickly they got on board in giving us their resources to all work together.”
Brown said the coordinated effort between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies during the initial investigation of the mass shooting helped birth the Catawba Valley Violent Crimes Task Force.
Now in court
The case could be in court for a long time due to the large quantity of evidence and having multiple co-defendants, Reilly said.
Brown said the sheriff’s office remains in contact with Reilly’s office and the other investigating agencies as everyone prepares for trial.
“The next court date for all seven defendants is in November,” Reilly said. “Usually, we don't set cases out that far, but because of the huge amount of discovery. We've got probably five different agencies that have hundreds of hours of discovery. I don't know how you would quantify it, but it's the most discovery I've ever seen in a case.
"Everything that we get, and that is put into a file, we have to make sure that it gets disseminated and given to each of the seven attorneys for the defendants, and that they can see every bit of evidence that there is against them.”
Discovery is evidence and materials planned to be used during a trial.
The organizers of the pool party, Raekwon Malik Craig and Patrick Lee Tolbert, were also charged by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with three misdemeanor counts of aiding and abetting a person under 21 years of age by allowing the possession of alcoholic beverages, according to court documents.
Craig is scheduled to appear in Catawba County District Court on June 29.
Killian, Huff, Mitchell, Bates, Mack, Kincaid and Braswell are all scheduled to appear in Catawba County Superior Court during the week of Nov. 2.
“As we reflect on this anniversary, our thoughts remain with the victims, their families, and everyone impacted by what occurred,” Brown said. “We remain steadfast in pursuing justice for the victims impacted by this senseless violence.”
The people charged in this case are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Izaiah Mitchell stands at a podium in Catawba County District
Court during a hearing on June 9, 2025.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
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Toland Huff Jr. enters the courtroom for Catawba County District
Court on June 9, 2025, for a first appearance on charges linked to
the Walnut Acres Drive mass shooting.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
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Charles Kincaid III talks to defense attorney Patrick Keeley
during a first appearance on June 17, 2025. Kincaid is one of six
charged with attempted first-degree murder in the Walnut Acres
Drive mass shooting.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
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A bailiff motions for Zachary Bates to follow him out of the
Catawba County District Court courtroom following a hearing on June
9, 2025.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
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Garon Nathaniel Killian, right, makes a first appearance in
Catawba County District Court on June 4, 2025. Killian was the
first of six men charged in the Walnut Acres Drive shooting in
Catawba County.
Sarah C. Johnson, Record file
