‘I thought I was dead’: Man describes terrifying moment stranger held him at gunpoint

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A father is describing the terrifying moment a stranger held him at gunpoint at his Gaston County home Sunday.

The victim told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon that he called 911 three times that day because he knew something was wrong. The chief said police are conducting an internal review of how all three calls to the house were handled.

The victim said he still has flashbacks of that day and believes police could have stopped it before things escalated.

“I thought I was dead, and I just wanted my family protected,” he said. “(I) said, ‘Please don’t shoot my family, please don’t shoot my family,’”

Gaston County police said the man was ambushed by Matthew Buford, a stranger with two assault rifles and a handgun, hiding near the home on Stoney Oak Drive, near Crowder’s Mountain.

“He was within 100 yards all day long,” the victim said.

The first hint of a problem came late Sunday morning, when the victim found a stranger’s car in the woods around his home. He said the engine was warm and called police. Authorities said they found a stolen assault rifle inside the vehicle.

A few hours later, the homeowner said he saw a stranger near the wood line in his back yard. He called 911 again and said he heard gunshots while on the phone to dispatch.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” he told Lemon. “It (blew) dirt all up on me and I jumped and run.”

The victim said when police arrived, they told him someone was skeet shooting nearby. Minutes after officers left, he said the stranger ambushed him as he sat in the garage.

“All I heard was hollering and gun pointed at me and ‘hands up, hands up!’” he said.

He said his wife and son walked out to check on him and the man pointed a gun at them as they approached.

“Said, ‘please don’t shoot my family, please don’t shoot my family,’” the man said.

His son was able to go inside and call 911, but the suspect ran away before police arrived.

Police said they found Buford in an abandoned car. When they approached, he fired shots at them, leading to a shootout with police. Buford was shot by one of the officers before being taken into custody.

The victim told Lemon that he is frustrated with police, because he said they should have searched the property after the first call for help.

“I was mad as I can be,” he said. “When he came back, I told him, ‘You(’re) lucky you are not here for a quadruple murder, ‘cause you didn’t do your job.’”

The police chief said he apologized to the homeowner, but he said his officers did take the family’s concerns seriously.

“We are all very sorry that the family had to go through this,” Chief Joe Ramey said. “The officers I know spend approximately 40 minutes on the first call, and the officer from the first call was still conducting search warrant duties on the vehicle and the weapon that was found on the initial call.”

Ramey said there is a policy that governs when they can use search dogs, and the first two calls may not have met that threshold.

The homeowner believes the circumstances warranted a search for everyone’s safety.

(WATCH BELOW: Officers shoot man accused of holding person at gunpoint, Gaston County police say)

Officers shoot man accused of holding person at gunpoint, Gaston County police say

©2022 Cox Media Group