ALBEMARLE, N.C. — A family said they were fishing on a local lake in kayaks when bullets started flying at them.
One of those shots hit the mom in front of her 12-year-old son, turning their day on Albemarle’s Long Lake into a trip to the hospital. Albemarle police said it happened around 11:45 a.m. Saturday in the area of Concord Road.
Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz spoke with the family about what happened. They said their day on the water at City Lake Park started just like any other when suddenly, bullets started flying.
“It went in about right there and the bullet is lodged behind my knee,” Candice Hodgson said. “They did say on the x-ray it was a 0.22 cal.”
It’s something she never could have imagine as she headed out Saturday morning.
“There is no reason anyone should be out here shooting guns around an active park with kids,” Hodgson told Goetz. “This is supposed to be a quiet, calm place to come to. This is not where somebody should have to worry about bullets flying.”
Hodgson, her boyfriend Michael, and her 12-year-old son were on their new kayaks they’d bought just three weeks prior.
“And this is where we loved to come fish, and now kayak, and now he is petrified,” Hodgson said.
She said she heard the gunshots when they were paddling near the tree line just before noon.
“She hollered out ‘I’ve been shot’ and I looked and blood was squirting,” her boyfriend told Goetz. “And I told her son ‘just go, get away from here.’”
He pulled Hodgson and her kayak to shore while they waited for police.
“I just wanted to get away, I just wanted my son to be safe, that’s all I wanted,” Hodgson said.
Back out at the park Monday, they walked with Stanly County detectives along the shoreline to show them what happened and where. Detectives said it may have been someone target shooting, but they’re investigating every possibility.
So far, there have been no arrests.
“I don’t know if it was an accident, I don’t know if it was someone just being very obnoxious,” Hodgson said. “I just want them to be held accountable because they could have shot somebody else’s innocent child. They could have shot mine.”
Detectives said the area where they believe the shots came from is not park property.
If you have any information, or if you were at the park on Saturday, you’re asked to call the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office.
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