A woman is in stable condition in the hospital and the man who shot her is dead after a police shootout in a North Carolina Planet Fitness parking lot early Tuesday morning.
The Newton Police Department said a woman called at about 12:30 a.m. and said she’d been shot in the parking lot of the Catawba County Governement Center. She left that location and traveled about two miles north to the parking lot of a Planet Fitness center, where officers quickly located her.
While medical personnel were tending to her, the alleged gunman drove into the parking lot and began firing into the area where she was being treated. Officers on the scene returned fire and shot him multiple times.
Both the gunman and his victim were taken to Catawba Valley Medical Center and then airlifted to Atrium Medical Health Center in Charlotte, where the gunman died. The woman is in stable condition.
Investigators have not released the identities of the victim or her would-be murderer, but Newton Police Chief Vidal Sipe said it was a case of domestic violence.
“It is unfortunate that officers had to take a life in order to save several lives,” Sipe said in a news release. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our officers, the victim and others affected by this senseless act of violence. Domestic violence continues to be a serious matter and needs to be addressed immediately.”
The multiple officers who shot the gunman are on administrative leave pending a state investigation.
