Mother says son who was with teen at Hilton Head shooting is innocent

The death of a Hilton Head Island teen last week has left the girl’s distraught father in jail and a worried mother convinced her son is not involved.

Sherry White, whose son lived at the Wild Horse Road residence where 17-year-old Rae Prock suffered a gunshot wound Feb. 3, said she has not heard much from investigators since the incident. Prock died the following day.

“I know the (Prock) family thinks that he did something, but no,” White said Friday. In an interview earlier this week, White said her son told her that Prock took her own life.

White said her son, who the newspaper is not naming because he has not been charged in the case, was questioned by Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies after they responded to the gunshot call.

“When you shoot someone, they check your hands for gun residue,” White said. “If he had shot her, he never would have come home that day.”

Capt. Bob Bromage said Friday he would not confirm White’s claim that her son had been tested for gunshot residue.

“I don’t want to release any kinds of details like that at this point,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Office released a male who was present at the time of the incident after he was interviewed, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. He was not charged and was never named by investigators.

Bromage said Prock’s death is still under investigation.

Her manner of death has not been released by the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office as it awaits information from the county’s Forensic Services Laboratory, Coroner Ed Allen said Friday.

The dead teen’s father, Robert Prock, 44, of Hilton Head, was charged with first-degree assault and battery Sunday. Witnesses at Beach Break Bar said he appeared “heavily intoxicated” when he wrapped his arms around a customer and bit off his right earlobe, according to a Sheriff’s Office news report.

Witnesses said Robert Prock was distraught over Rae Prock’s death and was threatening to kill someone and burn their house down.

When deputies came to arrest him, Prock reportedly admitted to the assault.

“I did it, and you know it,” Prock said.

He remained at the Beaufort County Detention Center on Friday with a bond of $50,000.

That assault charge was not Robert Prock’s first.

According to Beaufort County Court documents, he pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in November 2005.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Mother says son who was with teen at Hilton Head shooting is innocent."