Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
Police in Gastonia, North Carolina, say a man was shot last week while allegedly trying to kick his way into a disabled 75-year-old homeowner’s house. Instead of admitting what happened, investigators say he and his girlfriend drove to a nearby gas station and claimed he’d been wounded in a random drive-by shooting.
According to reports from WCNC and WBTV, that story unraveled quickly.
The homeowner, Donald Bolynn, told reporters he’d already been targeted once before. So when he heard someone trying to force their way into his Ware Avenue home again, he wasn’t taking any chances.
Surveillance video reportedly shows 57-year-old Cedric Ford repeatedly pounding on the front door before trying to pry open a window and shove in a window air-conditioning unit to gain entry. Bolynn said he saw Ford outside the window and fired a single shot through the glass.
“It looked like he was trying to come in, so I shot,” Bolynn told reporters.
The bullet struck Ford in the chest.
Instead of sticking around, police say Ford jumped back into a waiting vehicle driven by his girlfriend, Sanja Stallings. The pair headed to a nearby QuikTrip and called 911, claiming Ford had been hit during a drive-by shooting.
Investigators weren’t buying it.
Gastonia police say the supposed drive-by didn’t match the evidence. Using the city’s Real Time Crime Center, Flock license plate cameras, surveillance footage and one of the city’s 158 Flock gunshot detection sensors, detectives traced the gunfire back to Bolynn’s home. The technology reportedly narrowed the location of the gunshot to within about 100 feet of where the homeowner fired.