WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WNCN) — Shots fired in a shopping center parking lot, a bystander shot back and a car crash in a nearby neighborhood, police say it all happened in Wake Forest Saturday night.
A woman, named Sherri, has a message for a man she doesn’t know. “Thank you so much for saving me and my son,” she said tearfully.
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, Sherri, who preferred not to give her last name, said she was in the parking lot of a Wake Forest shopping center on Capital Boulevard with her husband Mirza Zukanovic and their 16-month-old son when they got into an argument.
“He got angry, jumped in the driver seat,” she said. “I have a concealed carry; he took my gun.”
She says her husband fired that gun, and she could only think about protecting her son. “I grabbed him and bear-hugged him and just ran,” she said.
She screamed for help.
Police say a man with a concealed carry permit grabbed his gun and fired a shot at Zukanovic.
“I think that scared him enough, and that’s why he took my car and left,” said Sherri.
He didn’t get far.
Anna Davis lives a few minutes from the shopping center and heard a car “flying” up the road just after 9 p.m. Saturday. She says it went up a grassy hill and swerved into a tree.
“My husband ran out; he has some medical training with the Army, so he came out to see what he can do and I called 911,” she recalled.
Hours later she said she realized the person in the car was the same person accused of firing a gun in the shopping center parking lot. Police say they arrested Zuknovic after the car crash. Police say they charged him with multiple counts related to the gunfire and the crash, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and DWI.
Sherri says she has never seen her husband act like this, and she’s still shaken up, but she’s grateful for the man who came to her aid.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to thank you but as someone who has a concealed carry I don’t know if I could even act like that in that situation,” she said.
CBS 17 spoke off-camera with the man who says he fired at the suspect. He said he doesn’t want any recognition, adding that he was simply worried about what would happen to the baby and did what he had to do.
“He’s an angel,” Sherri said.
