CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CMPD officers are searching for a suspect who pistol-whipped and threatened a man in the parking lot at a popular south Charlotte shopping center.
On May 4, 22-year-old Christian Lima was driving down Pineville-Matthews Road with his friend, an 18-year-old senior in high school, following in a car behind him.
Lima said when the two stopped at the stoplight at the intersection of Rea Road, his friend saw something disturbing in the car next to him.
"He told me he thought he saw someone flash a gun at him," Lima said.
Lima and his friend stopped at the Shell gas station at the Arboretum to fuel up, and Lima said that's when a man with a gun came running up to them.
"He started yelling at my friend. He thought my friend was eyeing him down," Lima said.
Lima tried to intervene on his friend's behalf, and said the man pulled a gun out his pants, cocked it and pointed the gun at his head.
"I'm thinking, I can die right here at the Arboretum. I basically told him to get the gun out of my face and he hit me with the muzzle, pretty hard," Lima said.
Lima said the man ran away, and his friend called 911 and an ambulance.
The suspect was seen in a silver sedan, with a female driver.
He is described as a white male with dirty blond hair, in his late teens or early 20s. Police said the suspect is 5 feet 8 inches tall and 140 pounds, and was last seen wearing a Charlotte Hornets jersey and hat.
Anyone with information should call CMPD.
WSOC
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