Pair arrested after separate armed robbery, carjacking calls in Ballantyne, Matthews

BALLANTYNE, N.C. — Two men were arrested Saturday after police said they stole a Matthews couple’s car minutes after trying to carjack a man in Ballantyne.

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, officers responded around 10:30 p.m. to an attempted carjacking call on Ballantyne Country Club Drive.

When officers got there, the victim said that two men walked up to him as he was getting into his car and tried to pull him out at gunpoint.

A woman told Channel 9 that the victim was her stepfather and she was with him at the time. According to her, the two suspects pointed a gun at them and took off when she dropped her purse on the ground and ran for help.

>> Reporter Gina Esposito spoke with two of the victims about this frightening crime and will have a full report on Eyewitness News starting at 5 p.m.

David Smith and his stepdaughter, Josie Duda, were leaving a home after a night of college football when Josie forgot her purse and ran back inside to get it.

“As I was walking, I saw a car pull up slowly,” Smith told Channel 9. “You don’t think twice half the time.”

That’s when Smith said two men got out armed with guns.

“He grabbed me and was pulling on my shirt and held a gun to me,” Smith said. “And he said, ‘You’re coming with me.’ I started fighting back. I didn’t even think about it. At first, I thought it was kids. I thought it was a prank.”

At that time, Josie walked back outside.

“They said, ‘Stop! Don’t move!'” Josie told Channel 9.

She said she thought back to her self-defense classes, and believes what she did next likely prevented something worse from happening.

“That’s why I took my purse and threw it away from me, and my body just started moving and I ran as fast as I could inside. I couldn’t really think,” Josie said. “I remember when I was screaming ‘robbery’ downstairs to my family. I was so in shock I wasn’t really sure what had happened.”

Less than 25 minutes later, police said they responded to another armed carjacking call in a neighborhood just 7 miles away.

When officers got to the home on Fox Hedge Road in Matthews, the victim told them that he and his wife were pulling into their driveway when two men walked up to them and stole their Porsche Cayenne at gunpoint.

Police said the car was spotted heading north on Interstate 77 a short time later. When officers pulled the vehicle over, police said the suspects jumped out and ran into the woods nearby, but were eventually caught.

Two guns involved in the robbery, an AR-15 and a 9mm pistol, were found, according to police.

Police later identified the men as 19-year-olds Noah Allen and Cameron Brown.

Allen was charged with three counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, felony breaking and entering, larceny of a motor vehicle, larceny from a motor vehicle, felony flee to elude, two counts of simple assault and resist/delay/obstruct a law enforcement officer.

Brown was charged with three counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, felony breaking and entering, larceny of a motor vehicle, simple assault, resist/delay/obstruct a law enforcement officer and possession of marijuana.

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