CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A worship leader at one of Charlotte's biggest churches is at home with his family a day after he was robbed and stabbed as he opened the door to his home in west Charlotte, the victim's friends said.
Matt Bentley opened the door Wednesday afternoon to walk into his home on Barringer Drive when a man who had broken into the home attacked him, friends said.
“He just kind of bum-rushed him, kind of swinging, asking for keys, wallet, phones, et cetera,” roommate Hudson Hower said Thursday afternoon.
The attacker stabbed Bentley four times on the arms, the side and on his face, but none of the wounds were life-threatening and Hower said Bentley was released from the hospital Thursday morning.
“He's in good spirits. He's glad that the injuries aren't any worse than they were,” said Stacey Martin, communications director at Forest Hill Church in Charlotte.
Bentley is a ministry leader and a musician who prepares the congregation for worship at the church’s Ballantyne campus.
Martin said Bentley called one of his colleagues at the church, and news of the attack spread quickly.
“So he's being loved on, cared for well, being covered in prayer,” Martin said.
Police arrested Corey Edgerton, 25, a few hours later in connection with the attack.
Prison records show that Edgerton spent two years in prison for break-ins in Wake County and was wanted by probation officers as an absconder.
Edgerton is in the Mecklenburg County Jail and was scheduled to make his first court appearance in the case on Thursday.
Edgerton was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, assault with serious bodily injury, larceny after breaking/entering, larceny of motor vehicle, possession of stolen goods/property, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana and resisting a public officer.
Officers are still searching for Bentley’s 2013 Nissan Altima.
This is the second time the same church has been struck by a difficult situation.
When Gentry Eddings was worship pastor at Forest Hill Ballantyne he lost his two sons in car crash.
Eddings took over as lead pastor earlier this year and Bentley took his place as worship leader.
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