Woman says masked man broke into home, beat her after she tried to run away

GASTONIA, N.C. — A Gaston County woman said she fled from her home in the middle of the night, only to be dragged back and beaten up after a masked man broke in early Wednesday morning.

The break-in happened just after 3:30 a.m. on Camelot Court in Gastonia.

Courtney Davis told Channel 9's Gaston County reporter Ken Lemon she saw the masked man coming through the back door as she ran outside, heading to her mother's apartment across the parking lot.

"I heard 'boom' really loud," Davis said.

She said she was a few feet away from her mother's front door when the man pistol-whipped and dragged her by her hair back into her apartment.

She believes it was someone who knew she had cash in her apartment. He walked right by a new 50-inch TV still in the box.

"He was not coming in here to talk," Davis said. "He was coming in to get what he wanted."

There was a male friend at home, but he could not stop the masked man from pistol-whipping Davis again and dragging her up the stairs of her apartment by her hair and threatening her.

She said the intruder told her he wanted cash and drugs.

He took money from her purse and her cellphone and put three pairs of shoes in a bag.

"Before he was getting ready to leave, he literally let go of me and shoved me on the floor and ran down the steps," Davis said.

She said the robber eventually left, but when she went to get help, she passed out twice and had to be hospitalized.

Cox Media Group