Bad blood between two teens boiled over into a wreck and a fight that sent one of them to the hospital and snarled traffic on busy Jake Alexander Boulevard on Saturday.
Salisbury police charged three people after the incident.
One of the teens, Heather Nicole Beirne, was taken to Rowan Regional Medical Center, where she was treated and released for a head injury she received during the fight.
According to a Salisbury Police Department report:
The incident began around 1:30 p.m., when two teen-age girls with a history of feuding spotted each other on U.S. 70 at Hurley School Road in Rowan County.
Beirne, 16, of 2345 Statesville Blvd., Apartment 154, was driving a 1994 Honda when she and Melissa Dawn Solomon, 18, of 160 Barger Estates Drive, saw one another.
Solomon was a passenger in a 1993 Honda driven by Christopher Allen McClure, 18, of Owensboro, Ky.
“Apparently, they had an altercation some months back and didn’t like each other,” said Sgt. Sam Russell of Salisbury Police Department.
The women began cursing and making obscene gestures at each other as they drove toward Salisbury, with McClure following Beirne until the road widened and they pulled alongside each other.
Both drivers went through the parking lot at Salisbury Mall and onto Jake Alexander, where they remained side by side on the four-lane road.
At the Woodleaf Lanes bowling alley, Beirne, driving in the inside lane, veered into the other lane and hit McClure’s car. She and Solomon then got out of their cars and began fighting.
The wreck and ensuing fight blocked both lanes of traffic and forced other drivers to take a detour through the Woodleaf Lanes parking lot, Russell said.
Solomon’s twin sister, Jennifer Rene Solomon, had been driving in a car ahead of McClure. When she saw the wreck and fight, she got out of her car and ran toward her sister and Beirne.
Thinking Jennifer Solomon was going to join the fight, Beirne’s boyfriend, Carlos Walker, 19, of 140 Page Drive, grabbed Jennifer Solomon and threw her to the ground.
During the fight, Beirne was knocked to the ground. She struck the pavement with her head and lost consciousness. That’s when the fight stopped, and Walker called 911 on his cell phone, Russell said.
Police charged Walker with assault on a female; Beirne with simple affray and improper lane change; and Melissa Solomon with simple affray.
Walker and Solomon, taken to the Rowan County magistrate’s office as Beirne went to the hospital, were released on a written promise to appear in court. All three have a court date of Feb. 5.
“It was a mess,” Russell said.
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