Gaston Co. police arrest suspect involved in multiple carjackings

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Police have arrested a suspect accused of attacking drivers in a series of carjackings.

Reporter Ken Lemon confirmed with police the suspect Wilson Derr was found sleeping in the car he is accused of taking.

Channel 9 learned Derr has 21 outstanding warrants in Mecklenburg County.

He is also wanted in Iredell, Lincoln and now Gaston County after officials said he was involved in a string of car robberies.

Officials said it started Monday morning in Lincolnton when the suspect approached 68-year-old Cathy Taylor while she was putting water in the radiator of her car.

He reportedly told Taylor he would kill her if she did not give him the car. She replied, "You'll just have to kill me then."

Officials said the suspect then pushed her down and drove away. She was taken to the hospital.

Officials said the car the suspect had stolen broke down about 7 and half miles away. People stopped to help him, thinking it was a stranded motorist.

"I figured somebody needed some help so I pulled up and tried to help," Magnum Isler said.

Brittany Walters stopped to help as well.

The suspect then allegedly fought with them, trying to take their cars.

Walters told Channel 9 that Derr jumped through the driver's side window of the car, so she hit him in the head with her phone and put her fingers in his eyes. He bit her so hard, she was taken to the hospital.

Isler pulled a knife when the suspect jumped into his car.

“(I) told him if he didn't get out, I was going to cut him,” Isler said. “When he saw the knife and saw I wasn't playing around, he got out."

One woman said the suspect reached into the driver's side window and hung on to the side of the SUV as she drove away.

"I just stomped it when he was fighting with me telling me to get out of the car," driver Dawn Routhier said. "I just pulled up beside the cop car thinking 'If this don't do it then well' you know."

Officials said the suspect let go of the vehicle and ran into an occupied home nearby. He then convinced a woman to give him the keys to her car and drove away in a 1999 Chrysler Town and Country.

Derr is in jail with no bond.

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