‘Stop the car’: Video shows man’s shooting death after police foot chase in Gastonia
A video obtained by WSOC shows an on-foot chase that led to the shooting death of a 21-year-old man by Gastonia Police officers Wednesday afternoon.
The 20-second video — provided by a neighbor — shows Jason Lipscomb running from multiple officers before entering a parked vehicle. Officers can be heard shouting “stop the car” and “get out the car,” but Lipscomb does not exit the vehicle and proceeds to back up and knock over an officer. As Lipscomb attempts to drive away, officers pull out their weapons and shoot at the car.
Officers performed CPR on Lipscomb after the shooting, but he died at the scene, police spokesman Rick Goodale said.
The officer was seriously injured and taken to a hospital, but he is expected to be OK, Goodale said
The events that led to Lipscomb’s shooting started with officers receiving a 911 call about the kidnapping of two children from a daycare in the 2100 block of West Fifth Avenue, Gastonia Police said in a news release.
The children were found safe at home near the 400 block of North Edgemont Avenue, but police learned a suspect might still be in the area, Goodale told reporters on Wednesday.
Lipscomb’s family members told WSOC that he didn’t have a weapon at the time of the shooting. Goodale said he had “no indication at this point” that Lipscomb was armed or displayed a weapon toward officers.
The children were the younger brothers of a woman who had a child with Lipscomb, his stepfather, Robert Hamlett, told Queen City News. Lipscomb took the children to Hamlett’s home on North Edgemont Avenue after picking them up from the daycare, he said.
“Whether he had the right to have them here, I don’t know nothing about that.,” Hamlett told the TV station. “That was my son. I let him in the door.”
The 911 caller and Lipscomb are known to each other, Goodale said. Lipscomb’s relationship to the caller or the children was not specified.
In February 2019, Lipscomb was convicted of felony breaking and entering, larceny charges, N.C. Department of Public Safety records show. He served a year and three months in prison, records show.
The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the Gastonia Police internal affairs unit are investigating the shooting, police said.
The officers involved in Wednesday’s shooting have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure, according to a police news release.
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 2:43 PM.
