Staff report
A child apparently escaped life-threatening injury Tuesday night when he was struck by pellets from repeated shotgun blasts at the car he was in.
Around 9:40 p.m., Rowan EMS and the Rowan Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a gunshot wound to the head of a child at 5485 Chenault Road, near the Rowan-Iredell county line.
The child ó who according to emergency radio communications is between a year and 18 months old ó was in a Jeep Cherokee with his parents when several shots were fired into the vehicle.
Emergency radio reports indicated the child was hit by a couple of pellets from a 12-gauge shotgun.
Randy Wooten, chief of the Rowan-Iredell Fire Department said the family was visiting a house on Steele Road when some type of altercation broke out.
The vehicle came under fire leaving the house. The family stopped a short distance away on Chenault Road to get medical assistance for the child.
Wooten said there were several holes in the vehicle.
Wooten said the wounds on the child’s head may have been caused by breaking glass or by pellets.
He said the child’s mother told firefighters she was from Salisbury. Names were not immediately available.
EMS radio traffic indicated the boy was alert and crying at the scene. He was transported to Iredell Memorial Hospital.
Deputies who responded also went to a residence on Steele Road and were looking for the shooting suspect late Tuesday night.
An early radio dispatch report indicated the suspect in the shooting was wrestling or struggling with someone as deputies headed to the location.