Registered sex offender arrested after hostage situation in Salisbury

SALSIBURY, N.C. — Salisbury police arrested a registered sex offender early Wednesday morning after allegedly holding a family hostage, cutting a woman and her son with a knife while threatening to kill them. The family is safe and the suspect is behind bars.

Officers responded to a disturbance call in the 200 block of Henderlite Street at approximately 3:45 a.m.

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Investigators identified the suspect as Eugene D. Nolan, 40, a known acquaintance of the victims, police said. The incident began when Nolan allegedly assaulted the woman and her son, both of whom survived the attack.

The situation escalated into a kidnapping when Nolan refused to let the woman’s daughter leave the residence.

The woman and her 14-year-old son were injured when Nolan allegedly cut them. According to police, those injuries were considered non-life threatening.

The woman who was attacked ran to her grandmother’s house across the street for help.

“That’s when I heard them banging on the door,” said the grandmother, who didn’t want to be identified.

She said her granddaughter met Nolan in a TikTok group and he was staying with her for a few days while in town.

The granddaughter eventually asked him to leave and that’s when he snapped. The granddaughter was cut across the back of her neck and needed stitches, and her teen son was cut, as well.

The granddaughter tried to wake up her kids and get them out of the house, but her 12-year-old daughter never made it out.

“He chased them over here,” she said. “When they ran across, they looked back, (the girl) was still in the house. “He was saying, ‘I’m going to kill your daughter. I’m going to kill your daughter.”

The Salisbury Police Department Special Response Team responded to the scene. They were joined by negotiators from the Salisbury Police Department and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials were told that Nolan was preventing the girl from leaving the home, police said.

Negotiators spoke with Nolan for approximately two hours to resolve the standoff. Nolan released the girl who was unharmed and he surrendered to police peacefully. Nolan was then taken into custody without further incident.

The grandmother said, “I was devasted. He kept telling her he was going to kill her. She said she was in there crying, begging him not to kill her, because she said he kept constantly telling her he was going to kill her.”

Nolan was charged with: