Man falls 50 feet down retaining wall to escape man with gun

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man is recovering after he jumped a fence and fell 50 feet down a retaining wall.

Sophia Springs said her boyfriend was trying to escape an armed man.

It happened at the Pavilion Crossing Apartment Friday morning.

Springs said her boyfriend had just left her apartment. He was standing in the parking and was talking with two girls who asked for his help. Then, a car rolled up.

"Then he saw another guy come running down with a shotgun and that's when he jumped over the rail," Springs said.

Springs said he believed he was going to be robbed or shot. When he jumped the fence, he fell about 50 feet down an embankment that runs along Stony Creek and Interstate 485. That fall broke his femur bone.

"(It was) two hours before anybody heard anybody was even out there," Springs said.

Channel 9 was there when firefighters tried to use a ladder to pull him up. Instead, they walked down a hill and carried him up. They loaded him on a stretcher and paramedics took him to the hospital.

Police were also at the complex investigating and trying to figure out the motive behind the man holding the gun next to Spring's home.

"Thank God it wasn't that worse as to what it was. He just had a broken leg and scratched and stuff like that," she said.

She also said her boyfriend was in surgery Friday afternoon and is expected to be OK.

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