A shooting in South Carolina that claimed the life of a Gastonia man may have been gang-related, according to testimony in York County Family Court on Tuesday.

A teenager is charged with murder and attempted murder in the death of Jai’Shaun Young, a Gastonia man who was shot May 4 outside a home near Galilean Road in York.

The boy, who isn’t being identified because he is charged as a juvenile, appeared in juvenile court Tuesday afternoon.

During a lengthy court hearing, Detective Sgt. Kiera Fayall of the York Police Department said that a witness, who was under the age of 18, told police that they had heard that the “VA Boys” wanted to “shoot the neighborhood up.”

“VA Boys” is likely a reference to the Valley Boys, a York-based gang that, according to the Rock Hill Herald, has historically been known to frequent the area of Galilean Road.

The teen who appeared in court Tuesday was named by a co-defendant in the case, who said that he and the teen went to the home together and fired shots, one of which struck and killed Young, according to Fayall.

Young was in York visiting friends at the time of the shooting, but he was reportedly targeted because the people involved in the shooting thought he was selling drugs in the neighborhood, Fayall said. There is no direct evidence Young was involved in criminal activity. The teen’s co-defendant also told police that people from Gastonia had threatened him sometime before the shooting.

As many as 16 shots were fired at the time Young was killed, and during a May 9 search of a home less than two miles from the scene of the shooting, two guns were found. The boys who were arrested fled the home when the police arrived.

However, Fayall admitted to defense attorney Stacey Coleman that there is no forensic evidence, no fingerprints, no DNA evidence and no witnesses besides others who are facing criminal charges that link the teen to Young’s killing.

Gail Burger, Young’s grandmother, said she wants the teenagers accused in the shooting to be charged as adults.

“Kids at this age think they can get away with it,” she said.

She said that the allegation that her grandson was selling drugs in the neighborhood upset her, “because I know (Young) didn’t do that,” she said.

“It’s something he would have never done, so I know that was a lie.”

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Teen charged in killing of Gastonia man appears in court