Harold Reid Jr. and Quintia Miller (Davie County Sheriff’s Office and WGHP screenshot)
An elderly North Carolina man admitted to fatally shooting a 26-year-old woman in a twisted and tragic case of mistaken identity, as the 78-year-old man believed the victim was a woman who had accused him of molesting her as a child and was preparing to testify against him in court the next day.
Appearing in Davie County Superior Court on Monday, Harold Reid Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in the October 2022 shooting death of Quintia Miller. In addition to the murder, Reid also pleaded no contest to one count each of first-degree sex offense and statutory sex offense, as well as two counts of indecent liberties with a child, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
According to the Davie County Sheriff’s Office, deputies at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2022, responded to an adult female reportedly being shot at the Rowan Pointe Apartments in Mocksville, located about 25 miles southwest of Winston-Salem. Miller was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooter was quickly identified as Reid and he was taken into custody that day by agents with the U.S. Marshals Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force and Davie County Sheriff’s Office units. The law enforcement agents were already at the apartment complex in an attempt to locate a wanted person who was not involved in the fatal shooting, DCSO said.
“The Officers were at a separate building in the apartment complex and heard shots being fired,” DCSO said in a release. “They saw the suspect shooting at the victim and responded to stop the threat. An Officer with the US Marshals Service fired his weapon one time at the suspect and then Officers were able to take Reid into custody.”
Reid had already been charged with the aforementioned child sex crimes and was scheduled to appear in court and begin his trial the day after the shooting.
“[Reid] went to the Rowan Pointe Apartments looking for a person involved in the case against him to stop them from participating in the case,” DCSO said. “He apparently mistook Miller for the person he was looking for and confronted her, before shooting her.”
According to a report from Greensboro Fox affiliate WGHP, Reid was looking to gun down a woman named Shavonne Barnes who lived in the apartment complex. Barnes told the news outlet that she was molested by Reid when she was a kid and planned to testify against him in court to make sure he would never have the opportunity to abuse another child.
“I saw Quintia lying face down and Reid Jr. laying on top of her. The attack should have never been her. The bullet was meant for me,” Barnes told WGHP. “I knew from the point of his release, his goal was to kill me, and he made that very clear. I also watched him lay on the ground, and his words to me were, ‘I was coming for you.’ Not only did he violate me, but he’s also taken an innocent life because he’s a coward.”
Barnes previously told the station that Reid repeatedly molested her when she was between the ages of 10 and 12.
Reid will serve a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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