GASTONIA, N.C. — Neighbors are on edge after bullets pelted a Gastonia apartment Monday night.
Witnesses said they saw about 16 shell casings that were the result of an apparent drive-by. They said the shots were fired from the street at about 10 p.m., and shell casings were scattered all over the road.
Gaston County reporter Ken Lemon spoke to neighbors Tuesday about what happened. They showed him a piece of brick chipped by bullets that hit this home and two others on Osceola Street. Lemon learned the 63-year-old woman who lives inside the home was asleep when shots rang out.
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Police said the bullets damaged three homes but most of them went into one apartment. Lemon counted 10 bullet holes in that apartment and the one beside it. Police said the shots hit a third house nearby.
Neighbors told Lemon they have no idea why anyone would fire at the 63-year-old woman’s home. They said she is quiet and keeps to herself.
Lemon talked to one neighbor who was clearly shaken but didn’t want her face shown.
“She was completely torn up because a lot of times, she sleeps in her living room. And if she had been in her living room, they would have shot here where her couch and everything is,” she said.
Police were able to quickly make an arrest in the case: 21-year-old Te’nice Lattimore is charged with two counts of discharging a firearm into occupied property, damage to property, and discharging a firearm in the city. He was given a $25,000 bond.
There were two buns with Lattimore that matched up with the shell casings collected at the scene.
Two guns believed to have been used in the shooting were found in Lattimore’s vehicle.
“Whatever they (were) shooting, they (were) shooting some big guns,” neighbor Victor Cobb said
He heard the shots at about 10 last night.
“All I heard was ‘tink, tink tink,’ like bullets was hitting the metal door,” Cobb said
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