Man in custody after fleeing from police on stolen motorcycle near Gastonia hospital

GASTONIA, N.C. — Things are back to normal at a hospital in Gastonia, but on Sunday afternoon, it was placed on lockdown as police chased after two suspects on stolen motorcycles.

It all started with a traffic stop at New Hope Road and East Franklin Boulevard, before ending at CaroMont Regional Medical Center.

Police say one of the men was hiding in the hospital ceiling.

Officers got a hit from a license plate reader, and that’s what started the pursuit.

One of the suspects has a violent past.

Officers escorted 27-year-old Christopher Adam Hooper out of the hospital. They say he hid in a drop-down ceiling, but their K-9 sniffed him out.

Hooper and 20-year-old Payton Beatty allegedly drove stolen motorcycles down Melvin Drive.

“I was sitting watching the program, heard the motorcycles zooming up the street. 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,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous.

“I heard the police cars spinning up, they were going fast around the corner,” said another resident who didn’t want their face shown.

Police say they got a license hit near Armstrong Park Road and tried to pull the suspects over at the intersection of New Hope and East Franklin. Where they ended up is very close to the hospital.

Beatty was arrested on Melvin Drive.

“There is hospitals all around here and it’s all no trespassing because they don’t want people sneaking in the back,” one neighbor said.

Hooper has a criminal past. He was convicted of manslaughter back in 2023 for a killing in 2020. He just got out of prison last year, and has other pending charges separate and apart from what happened Sunday.

“Most of the people are very quiet. They’re not doing anything but just living. Generally if you’re in here to visit somebody, that’s very obvious and if you’re up to no good, that’s also obvious,” the neighbor said.

Hooper is being held in the Gaston County Jail under no bond for several charges including reckless driving, resisting arrest and obstructing a health care facility.

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