CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Police said it appears a man fatally wounded his girlfriend accidentally Thursday afternoon.

Investigators said the couple was moving into a home on Franklin Street in northwest Charlotte just before 2 p.m. when 20-year-old Renee Williamson was shot once in the hip.

The woman’s boyfriend was rushing her to the hospital when he spotted an officer and flagged him down, police said.

“He flagged down a (Highway Interdiction Traffic Safety Unit) officer, and the officer took him to the hospital,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesman Officer Robert Fey.

Police said the man told the officer he had shot his girlfriend. Williamson died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Fey said the boyfriend was interviewed by investigators, but without speaking to the victim, no one really knows how the shooting happened.

“The boyfriend is being cooperative with us,” Fey said.

Anita McNeely, who lives on the same street as the couple’s new home, said she can’t believe it was anything but a tragic accident.

“Good kids, very good kids. They come from a good family. He works everyday. It’s hard to believe something like this is happening to them,” she said.

Police have not released the boyfriend's. They said although the shooting appears accidental, they're sending the case to the district attorney's office.