A friend of Rhyne Linker is challenging the SUV driver’s claim that he lost control while being held at gunpoint, raising new questions in the November 2025 crash that killed Rhyne Linker who was on a curb on Trinity Avenue.
Warrants show the driver claimed he lost control because he was being held at gunpoint.
Rhyne Linker’s friend was with him when he was killed. Rhyne Linker’s family members said they have concerns about the driver’s story, as well.
Channel 9 is not naming the driver because he has not been charged.
The driver of the SUV said a robber jumped into his vehicle, put a gun to his head, lost control, and hit Rhyne Linker, who was on a curb, before slamming into a home.
A woman, whose care was hit, said after the crash, the driver, who claimed to be a robbery victim, ran away side by side with the other man in the SUV.
Rhyne Linker’s wife was about to walk outside when the crash happened.
“It replays in my mind every day,” said Ashley Linker, the victim’s wife. “It’s the last time I got to see my best friend, to see the love of my life.”
Rhyne Linker was helping to repair a friend’s car in November 2025 when the SUV went off Trinity Avenue and hit him.
“Half of me is missing,” said Ashley Linker.
Police said the driver of the SUV ran and later came back to the scene.
They say the driver said just before the crash, he stopped on Trinity Avenue to check his GPS and a man with a ski mask put a gun to his head.
The driver said he hit the gas, the masked man jumped in through the driver’s side window and they crashed.
The driver said he ran away from the other man, but a witness who was in the car Rhyne Linker was trying to repair told us she saw both men run away together.
Rhyne Linker said police told her they had nothing on the alleged masked robber.
“I deserve more than nothing,” Ashley Linker said.
She and Rhyne Linker’s mother are pleading with that alleged robber to end this ordeal for them.
“Please turn yourself in,” said Janice Spidel, mother. “Please do the right thing and turn yourself in.”
Gastonia Police haven’t said much, but said they are still conducting a “active and robust investigation.”
Rhyne Linker’s family said they have concerns about the driver’s story.
“I’m simply a mother who has lost her son in the most horrific way possible,” Spidel said.
Police have checked doorbell and security cameras in the area, and they have requested in-car data from the wrecked SUV, and they are also looking at the SUV’s data history for clues about this case. They said they haven’t stopped there.
VIDEO: Family says man killed when car crashed into Gastonia home; driver later surrendered
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