IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — A Statesville woman faces assault and property damage charges after allegedly spraying gasoline on someone inside their truck at a convenience store on Island Ford Road, officials said.
Deputies with the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office responded to the convenience store after the victim reported that a verbal altercation in the parking lot escalated, the sheriff said. The victim stated that a woman sprayed both them and their truck with gasoline before leaving the scene.
Detectives identified the suspect after interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance video that captured the incident.
Christina Dawn Hatcher, a 27-year-old resident of Statesville, was identified as the suspect.
Investigators said they don’t know what set her off, but a 17-year-old said he was doused.
The teenage victims said they were inside their truck with the window down at the pumps when they got doused with gasoline.
Evan Waters showed Channel 9 a video of the incident.
He and a friend were inside his pickup truck a couple of weeks ago when Hatcher grabbed a gas nozzle from another truck. She went to his driver’s side window and began spraying them and the truck with gasoline.
“The woman comes up and starts confronting us and then takes some random person’s gas pump and starts spraying the truck and me and my friend with gas, and we don’t know what to do,” Waters said.
The owners of Sharon Express said someone at the pumps cut off the gasoline, and Hatcher took off in her car.
Mike Patel owns the store and couldn’t believe what happened.
“It’s very dangerous, and seeing that was crazy,” Patel said.
Sheriff’s deputies in Alexander County said Hatcher was also arrested for breaking into a home near Stony Point.
Her former roommate spoke with us about her erratic behavior after drinking.
“You never know what’s going to transpire,” said the former roommate who didn’t want to be identified. “What she is going to say or what she’s going to do. She’s a wild card.”
Evan Waters said that after being sprayed with gasoline, he and his friend got a license plate tag number. Waters is a junior firefighter in Hiddenite and knows how dangerous gasoline can be.
“It’s super dangerous,” Waters said. “Any spark or anything could have ignited it and made everything a lot worse.”
Deputies said that because of the video and the description of the car, they were able to identify Hatcher. By then, she was already locked up in jail in Alexander County for the break-in.
Hatcher was charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor injury to personal property.Hatcher was served with the Iredell County warrants while she was in custody at the Alexander County Detention Center on unrelated charges.
Magistrate M.D. Simms issued Hatcher a $10,000 secured bond.
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