HICKORY, N.C. — Investigators said they are looking for two men who kidnapped a 37-year-old business owner at gunpoint, tied up his 26-year-old girlfriend and her son and then shot the business owner and another man in Hickory.
The kidnapping happened Tuesday night at a home on 7th Avenue Place Southwest.
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Police said the suspects went inside the business owner's home and tied up his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son before taking the man to his business.
The owner's family said he was placed in the trunk of his car after being kidnapped from his home.
The shooting took place a short time later along First Avenue Southeast at the Premium Boutique, which doubles as a hair salon and recording studio.
Channel 9 learned that when the kidnappers showed up at the business with the owner, there was a man inside recording a rap song with his 2-year-old son by his side.
According to police, the father and his son were able to escape through a front window that had been smashed out with a chair.
Channel 9 spoke with the 2-year-old boy's mother the next day.
“Everybody got gone,” the mothers said. “Everybody was shooting, so the first thing everyone was thinking was, ‘Jump out the window.’ But they realized a baby was in there, so I guess they stopped shooting”
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During the chaos, witnesses said the kidnappers opened fire, hitting the business owner and another man. The gunmen drove off in a 2016 burgandy Kia Optima that was stolen from the business owner's home.
“It was like a movie to me,” Hinds said. “I heard three pops and the next thing I knew, something was coming through that window, outwards.”
One victim received non-life threatening injuries and was treated and released from Frye Regional Medical Center, Hickory police said.
The second victim was transported to Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem and is in stable condition.
No arrests have been made and police have not released a description of the kidnappers.
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