HICKORY, N.C. — A man is in the hospital after he was shot by police officers Thursday night outside a restaurant and lounge in Hickory.
According to the Hickory Police Department, officers responded around 10:30 p.m. to a 911 call from the Corner Pocket Lounge on U.S. Highway 70 SW about a man with a gun. The 911 caller told dispatchers that the man had pulled a gun on an employee of a business.
When officers got to the Corner Pocket Lounge, they spotted a man matching the suspect’s description in the back parking lot area, near the dumpster. The officers gave the man, identified as 42-year-old Gregory Ray Cribb, repeated verbal commands to show his hands and come out from behind the dumpster, officials said.
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Officers also tried to talk to Cribb for several minutes in order to get him to comply, but authorities said he instead made several verbal threats toward the officers.
Cribb then advanced toward the officers and two officers fired their guns, hitting him, the police department said. Cribb was taken to the hospital and was listed in stable condition.
Outside the restaurant on Friday, Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty saw where several rounds struck a pickup truck and a door around the back of the business. An employee, Mike Cromer, showed Channel 9 where several shots also hit a brick wall nearby.
Cromer told Channel 9 what he heard and did in the moments leading up to the shooting.
“Somebody hollered, ‘He’s got a gun’ and he was behind our dumpster,” he said. “And somebody said, ‘Put the gun down,’ and a cop said, ‘Put the gun down, put your hands up.’ Several times, and he still didn’t do it. And then it was maybe five, 10 minutes later I heard the gunshots go off.”
Channel 9 has learned police believe Cribb tried to carjack a woman employee of a nearby business at gunpoint.
Police said they got a call a short time earlier about someone pulling a weapon on that employee outside The Aquarium Fish Games business just down the street. Lauren Vassil told Channel 9 someone came up from behind her with a gun and tried to steal her car behind the business.
“I was going to die,” Vassil said. “My daughter, all I kept telling him was, ‘Please don’t shoot me, I have a daughter,’ and I kept repeating it to him, ‘please,’ and he didn’t care. He was determined to get my keys and my money.”
Employees said they intervened, chasing after Cribb and calling police. They spotted him hiding behind the dumpster feet from where the shooting eventually happened. Workers at both the restaurant and the arcade said they believe police acted appropriately.
“They done their job,” Cromer said. “They done a great job and they were right on top of it.”
“He could have killed me last night, so I think they did a good job at doing their part at what they had to do,” Vassil told Channel 9.
Cribb remains in the hospital but warrants have been taken out against him for felony robbery with firearm/dangerous weapon and felony second-degree kidnapping.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation will be investigating the officer-involved shooting. The two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation, which is standard procedure.
Check back with wsoctv.com for updates on this story.
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