CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – A Conway woman was arrested after firing a gun near several children beside a playground Sunday evening, according to police.
An Horry County Police report details how an officer was responding to an unrelated assault call when he heard a gun shot in the area of the playground on Legacy Way in Conway around 5:23 p.m. Sunday. The officer saw several children running away from the parking lot crying saying someone what shooting, according to the report.
Witnesses told the officer the shooter was a black woman in a red shirt and pointed in the direction she was seen running. When the officer rounded a corner of a building in search of the woman, he saw two men fighting and a woman trying to break them up by hitting them with a stick.
The officer then saw Frankie Telisa McNeil, 38, of Conway, standing near the fight holding a silver and black gun. According to the report, the officer drew his gun and commanded McNeil to put her weapon down several times before she followed his instructions.
McNeil told officers that she was in her house, near the playground, when her daughter came inside to say several women were trying to fight her. McNeil then grabbed her gun and headed out the door, the report states.
A mother at the playground told the officer that she was at the park with her 1 and 5-year-old daughters when she saw McNeil, McNeil’s daughter and several other women start arguing, which led to a physical fight. The witness told police that McNeil then pulled the handgun from her front waistband and fired the weapon into the air, very close to the witness’ two small children.
McNeil told police that she fired the gun as a “warning shot” to disperse the crowd. McNeil is charged with disorderly conduct, unlawful carrying of a pistol, pointing and presenting a firearm at a person and unlawful neglect of a child. McNeil was booked into J. Reuben Long Detention Center Sunday at 6:38 p.m. and was released Monday at 5:39 p.m. on a $6,500 bond.
