Men fire gunshots at family with 2-year-old inside car in Kannapolis

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — A mother is recovering after being shot while sitting in a car with her child Monday in Kannapolis, police said.

Molly Scott had just left her house with her 2-year-old and her son's father and was headed to a laundromat.

They were sitting at a stop sign at the intersection of North Walnut and Locust streets around 5:45 p.m. Monday when she saw two men in a black car pull up next to her.

One of the men pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger. Scott said she was shot in her leg.

Fortunately, no one else in the car was injured.

"I was just shocked because I've never been that close to a gun before,” Scott said. “As soon as he pulled up, he, like, already had the gun out and he just started shooting. Five bullets entered my vehicle and one went into my leg.”

After the shooting near Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, the men in the car took off.

“My son's dad just pulled me down and I hit the gas and then I pulled over,” Scott said. “I didn’t even know I was shot until I felt my leg leaking.”

Scott said that, normally, her other child would have been sitting in the spot where the other bullets hit.

“It could've been a lot worse, a lot worse, because my son could've died,” Scott said. “For him to actually start firing, and I know you've seen my son's car seat in the back, and the baby on board, if my little son would've been in the back seat behind me, he would've gotten shot three times.”

A witness who lives nearby said police found bullet casings in her front yard.

She said her son was standing near a window when she heard shots, so she grabbed him and they both hid in the house.

“We were just in my room and out of nowhere you hear somebody stop really fast and then four gunshots went off,” Larissa Oliva said. “We never have anything like this happen around here. Normally, it's really quiet. Everybody knows each other and right away everyone started talking, going across the street making sure everything is OK.”

Officers don't have a good description of the suspects but said there were two men who left the scene in a two-door Chevrolet.

Cox Media Group