Fight over NASCAR shirt turns to gun threat inside Family Dollar, witnesses say

CHARLOTTE — Witnesses say a bizarre and scary crime unfolded Monday at a north Charlotte Family Dollar.

It all started with a woman demanding the shirt another woman was wearing.

It ended with her threatening people with a gun. It happened Monday at the North Graham Street location of Family Dollar near Camp North End. The store did not respond to a request for comment.

ALSO READ: Families wonder why some area Family Dollars closed

A family member of a person inside the store says the incident started when a woman complimented another woman on her NASCAR shirt and then demanded it off of her.

“She asked her to give her the shirt that she wanted, the shirt so the lady, of course, told her, no, she wasn’t going to give her the shirt,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified.

That led to a fight between the women. Witnesses said the woman who demanded the shirt, at one point, was throwing water bottles out of the cooler, but things got even more disturbing when she briefly left and came back inside.

“She came back with a gun and was waving it at everyone going in the store,” the witness said.

Employees got most of the customers to the back of the store and called the police but a teenager wasn’t able to make it to the back in time. That’s when witnesses say the woman threatened her.

“When the lady saw her, she pointed the gun at her head, and the little girl just laid there in, like a fetal position,” she said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers arrived and subdued the woman, making an arrest. The woman’s child was with her during the whole ordeal.

“You can’t do anything, because you just don’t know what people are thinking,” she said. “You don’t know what they’re going through.”

CMPD has not released any information on the incident. The records division says a police report isn’t ready. Witnesses say the woman was taken for a mental health evaluation after she was arrested. Her identity has not been released.

“I’m very upset about it, and I am afraid for those that are working, that are still employed there,” the woman said.

VIDEO: Suspect shot by deputy at local Family Dollar