SWAT teams explode flash-bang grenades, breach NC home where 2 women held as hostages
SWAT teams exploded flash bang grenades seconds before rescuing two women whom a North Carolina man held hostage for more than 13 hours and threatened to kill, authorities said early Wednesday.
The Gaston and Lincoln county SWAT teams breached the door of the home on Woodland Hills Trail just after midnight, according to a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office news release. The home is off U.S. 321 Business, 4.5 miles northeast of downtown Lincolnton.
SWAT team members freed the women and took 40-year-old Patrick Andrew Shomo of Gaston County into custody. No one was injured, sheriff’s officials said in the release.
Gaston County authorities wanted Shomo on drug trafficking charges, officials said.
Shomo was charged in Lincoln County with kidnapping, discharging a firearm into occupied property and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held at county detention center under a $675,000 secured bond and a no-bond hold for Gaston County.
Gaston County officers arrested one of the hostages on probation violation charges.
Chelsey Ann Avery, 31, of Iron Station is in the Gaston County Jail without bond, according to the Lincoln County sheriff’s release. The other hostage, whose name has not been made available, was interviewed and released.
Investigators have not said if Shomo knew the women in the home.
The incident began about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday when Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to help Gaston County Probation and Patrol officers at the home, according to the release.
Shomo ran out the back door when he saw the deputies, then stopped and returned inside.
When the officers called out to him, the man said he wasn’t going to prison, deputies told WSOC.
A U.S. Marshals specials response team also responded, because the suspect has federal probationary warrants, Lincoln County sheriff’s officials said.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 10:12 AM.