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A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head when three people broke into a Gastonia home occupied by four children and tried to rob the place, police said.
Ontario Lynch, the injured teen, was taken to a hospital with what Gastonia police described as serious injuries.
The three other children – a 16-year-old girl and two younger children – were not injured.
It happened Thursday shortly before midnight at a house on East Fourth Street near South Oak Street. Gastonia police say three males, their heads covered with makeshift masks, broke into the home. They tied up the children with duct tape and began looking for money and other valuables, police say.
There is no indication as to where the children's parents or guardians were during the crime.
At some point during the robbery, the robbers demanded money from the 15-year-old boy and shot him in the eye, police said.
The robbers fled, and the injured teen, blood streaming down his face, was able to walk to a neighbor's house and summon help.
Police had not identified any suspects.
