Man who was inside AutoZone during shooting: ‘Very scared for my life’

CHARLOTTE — A man says he was inside an AutoZone the moment bullets started flying last week.

It happened at the automotive retailer’s Lower South End location on Wednesday, which is on South Boulevard near Scaleybark Road. Police say they still don’t have a suspect.

Even though it had been several days, on Monday, the store’s windows were still boarded up.

Channel 9′s Dan Matics spoke to one man who asked we not show his face or say his name and distort his voice because he’s in fear over his safety.

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“It was very nerve-wracking,” he said. “I have kids.”

He was one of many inside the AutoZone when it was shot up Wednesday evening.

“A guy walked to the door and then immediately heard a lot of gunshots -- rapid fire, sounded like 12 bullets,” he said.

The gunfire hit the window frame and a store security device. Police did say no one was hurt, and the father told Matics that’s because of their quick thinking.

“They told us all to get down on the ground and we got to the back of the building. It took police, 10, maybe 15 minutes to get there,” he said.

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department report shows someone also shot Anita Zarey’s van nearby around the same time as the AutoZone shooting. We spoke to her on Friday.

“It was ‘thump, thump, thump,’ and I thought somebody hit in the house,” she said.

Detectives say they think both shootings are related. It’s enough chaos to have the father Matics spoke with rethinking the area.

“I was very hurt, distraught, being that I didn’t think it would happen over there in that type of area and environment,” he said. “Very scared for my life.”

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