GASTONIA, N.C. — Graphic warning: Some details in this story may be disturbing to some readers.
A Gastonia man is behind bars after being accused of assaulting women inside a Walmart.
Channel 9’s Glenn Counts spoke with one victim who said Thomas Snyder sprayed his bodily fluids on her.
Snyder appeared in court Friday afternoon after his charges were upgraded to aggravated assault.
“I don’t know what kind of sick, twisted stuff that is. It makes me feel unsafe,” the victim said.
She was one of three, according to police. Her incident took place in February, while the others occurred in March and May.
“It has kind of left a mental scar on me,” she said.
According to prosecutors, all of the women were assaulted inside the Walmart on North Myrtle School Road, with each of them being sprayed with semen from a syringe.
“I was getting some tortilla chips, and all of a sudden, you feel something kind of wet on your back. And you’re like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ And then all of a sudden this crazy guy with a syringe is just squirting stuff out, and you don’t know what kind of liquid it is,” the woman explained.
Prosecutor Josh Warner said Snyder was also recording the incidents.
“They discovered multiple videos of that conduct had been recorded with multiple different victims and may have been disseminated to multiple different people using messaging apps on the defendant’s phone,” said Warner.
Snyder has been charged with disseminating obscenity. And while he didn’t say much in court, he did defend himself against that charge.
“I know it doesn’t make any difference now, but I do want the court to know that those videos never went to anybody else,” said Snyder. ’
The Gastonia Police Department is crediting their quick actions that resulted in Snyder’s arrest last Friday.
“No one should have to endure such an invasive and traumatic experience while simply going about his or her daily life shopping in a store,” the department said in a statement.
The victim told Channel 9 that the experience has left her worried about her health.
“Oh yeah, I told them I wanted to be further tested to make sure he didn’t have any type of disease because I come home and I’m around my kids,” the victim said.
Prosecutors said they believe investigators will find more victims once they finish looking through Snyder’s phone.
Snyder’s bond was originally $100,000, but the judge has since raised it to $250,000.
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