‘We just saw a lot of blood’: Charlotte arcade staff, sales rep help shooting victims
Staff members at a popular arcade and a beer sales representative rushed to the aid of two shooting victims who parked outside the east Charlotte entertainment venue on Thursday afternoon.
Zachary Pulliam, owner of Super Abari Game Bar in the Belmont neighborhood, told The Charlotte Observer that he spotted the man and woman bleeding in the arcade’s parking lot on Seigle Avenue around 2:20 p.m. While Pulliam called 911, an arcade employee and the beer rep applied pressure to their wounds until paramedics arrived, he said.
“They really went above and beyond,” Pulliam said. “We had no clue what was going on, we just saw a lot of blood.”
According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police report, a 20-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man were shot inside a car near the 1200 block of Louise Avenue — less than a mile away from the arcade — around 2:25 p.m..
One of the victims was shot in the mouth, the other in the back, Observer news partner WSOC reported.
“We do not know why the couple decided to pull into our lot,” Pulliam said. “We just tried to do the best that we could, and I hope they’re OK.”
No one in the arcade heard gunshots, Pulliam said.
“It sucks that it happened, but I’m glad that we were able to help them in some way,” he said.
Neighbors along Louise Avenue told the Observer they heard gunshots mid-afternoon, but they weren’t sure where the sound originated. Police left around 4 p.m., neighbors said.
“I am very proud of how (a staff member) handled the situation as pressure was applied to their wounds while EMTs arrived,” Pulliam said in a Facebook post. “We closed for the day to clean and because we frankly are all pretty shook.”
Super Abari Game Bar reopened on May 16 in the Belmont neighborhood just outside uptown after its previous location along the border of the Villa Heights and Optimist Park neighborhoods closed during the pandemic in 2020.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 5:40 PM.
