GASTONIA, N.C. — Things are back to normal at CaroMont Regional Medical Center, but on Sunday afternoon, it was placed on lockdown as police chased after two suspects on stolen motorcycles.
Officers escorted 27-year-old Christopher Adam Hooper out of the hospital. They allegedly found him hiding in a drop-down ceiling in the hospital. Hooper and another man were allegedly running from police and turned down Melvin Drive, which is a dead-end road. One of the suspects was caught on that road.
Police brought in a K-9 and they tracked Hooper to that ceiling in the hospital.
No one was injured, but neighbors were surprised by all of the activity on their street.
“I was sitting watching the program, heard motorcycles zooming up the street,” said one neighbor who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s a dead-end. They went way too fast to get stopped. One of them went off in the woods, and I called 911 and reported it.”
What started the chase is that police got a hit on a license plate reader and it came back as stolen.
Hooper does have a criminal record.
He was convicted of manslaughter in 2023 and just got out of prison last year.
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