CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte woman is warning others to be on the lookout after she was confronted by a man wielding what appeared to be a machete at a gas station in west Charlotte.
Marissa Craig said she believes the man is homeless and has seen him in the area. She said the incident happened on Thursday at the BP gas station off Little Rock Road in west Charlotte.
"It's scary to think that somebody so close to home is going around terrorizing people like that. I wanted to warn my neighbors so that they could be aware and keep an eye out for this person,” Craig said.
Craig said she is worried someone will get hurt.
There are several businesses in the area, including a laundry mat, family dollar and a Food Lion grocery store. It's an area where many families frequent.
It was around 7:30 p.m. when Craig said she went into the gas station to buy lotto tickets. There are doors on both sides of the gas station. One side was locked while the other side was not, which she said is usual at night.
That's when a man was trying to get inside the gas station, but on the wrong side. Craig said he walked around to where there was a speaker button and started banging on the window.
“The attendant was gesturing for him to come inside and he just kept hitting the window. So, I opened the door and said, 'do you want to come inside instead of just hitting the window,'" Craig said.
That is when she noticed that he might be carrying a weapon.
“He pointed a two-foot-long red serrated-edged machete in my face and told me quite explicitly to hush my mouth or he would hurt me.” She said. “I don't want to say exactly what he said because it's quite graphic.”
She slammed the door and locked it to prevent him from coming inside.
“The attendant thanked me for doing so. I think she would have done the same thing in my shoes. And he backed out of the parking lot walking backward waving the machete in the air while screaming obscenities at us and threats as well,” Craig said. “It's just terrifying to think that I live in an area where anybody has a weapon that's that large and easily accessible just on their person at any time.”
Craig called the police, but by the time they got there, the man was gone. She shared the incident on Nextdoor. A woman named Susan commented she believed she ran into the same man just a few days prior across the street at Arby's.
“There were two men arguing in the parking lot. They looked like they could be homeless,” Susan said. Then, one of the men locked eyes on her.
“He started walking toward me, he was mumbling something. I couldn't understand what he said. But I was real uneasy, especially when he pointed that metal at me like he was shooting." Susan said that she ran into the Arby's and the man walked away.
Dennis McNeill, who works in the area, believes several homeless people live in the wooded area behind the businesses and called it a dangerous situation.
“Panhandling… all day and all night,” said McNeill. “It is a disruption, especially when drugs enter the scene, that is the biggest concern.”
People in the community said they are worried about safety.
“They are doing a lot of roaming at night and there is no security anywhere,” said McNeill.
CMPD said if you do have an encounter like this, do not engage and call 911.
If it is a nonviolent encounter with someone who may be going through a mental health crisis, call the police and ask for the community policing crisis response team.
“I just want safety concerns to be taken seriously in this area,” said Craig. “There is a large homeless population, and I want them to be housed, clothed, fed, things like that, and their needs to be met. So that these kinds of incidents don't continue to happen.”
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.