HICKORY, N.C. — Deputies have determined three men who claimed they were victims of an attempted robbery and shooting Tuesday night made up the whole story to investigators.
Around 6:45 p.m., authorities were called about an alleged shooting on Huffman Farm Road in the Mountain View area of Catawba County.
The caller reported that he was in a vehicle with two other people when they picked up a man walking down the road. They said that the man then tried to rob them once inside the vehicle, and when they refused, he shot the driver through the seat, jumped out and ran.
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Officers arrived at the scene in the parking lot of a shopping center on NC 127 Highway in Hickory and found the three men, one of them suffering from a gunshot wound.
That man was taken to the hospital with what deputies called a non-life-threatening injury.
After investigating, it was determined that the men lied about the facts of the incident in order to cover up that one of them accidentally shot the driver.
All three men, Donald Reid, Benjamin McCann and Dylan Carroll, face weapon charges and filing a false police report charges, and more charges are pending.