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His tale of survival

Victim says money motive of home invasion, shooting

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 8, 2008

HICKORY - Three friends were sitting around a table playing poker Friday afternoon when a masked man wearing a red bandanna over his face crashed through the front door brandishing a sawed-off shotgun and demanding money.

That was how Michael Hurt, 36, described a home invasion in the mobile home he rents and shares with his 62-year-old mother and his girlfriend, Mandy Williams, 27, at Cool Park Trailer Court at 3102 Kool Park Road.

Williams pointed out the route the gunman took as he sprinted from the car that dropped him off and passed a permanently locked cinder-block laundry building with gang graffiti scrawled beside the front door.

The search for the suspect continues today. Police declined to comment on the investigation, saying only that they are investigating a number of leads and suspects.

Hurt said as soon as the gunman entered the home, his friend, Rayvon Woods, bolted out the back door of the home into a wooded area, leaving his pregnant girlfriend, Amanda Shearer, 21, behind.

The intruder demanded the two men's wallets and ordered them to empty their pockets onto the table.

Then he asked who else was in the home, Hurt said Tuesday as he talked about the incident and tried to understand why it happened.

Hurt said when the gunman learned there were two women in the residence, he made his way down the narrow hallway to herd everyone into the front room. Hurt said he decided the hall was so narrow the gunman wouldn't be able to maneuver so, "That's when I jumped in and whipped his butt." Hurt said he was determined to protect Shearer and Williams.

As Hurt and the suspect struggled, the men crashed through the bathroom door and the gunman "hit me with the butt of the gun about a dozen times," Hurt said. His right eye is still swollen nearly shut and a there's a quarter-sized abrasion over his left eye.

The men continued to fight their way back to the living room and the gun went off as Hurt shoved the barrel away from his leg and toward the wall, Hurt said.

The blast went through the wall, striking Shearer who was hiding in the next room. She was struck in the left leg with two pieces of shot.

Maj. Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office said Shearer was treated and released from Frye Regional Medical Center. Her unborn baby was not hurt in the attack, he said.

Hurt said the gunman's motive was simple — he wanted money.

Hurt said he had allowed Woods and Shearer to stay with them for a week, but had asked them to find a new place by the weekend. Hurt thinks his former friend fled the scene because he may have been an accomplice in the attack.

"I think he was involved with it. That's what you get for helping somebody out," said Hurt.

Hurt said Woods knew there was a large amount of cash in the house at the time of the attempted robbery because Hurt's mother had just gotten her Social Security check and Hurt had just gotten his disability and his IRS stimulus check.

Although Hurt denies knowing the would-be thief, he describes him as someone who is "Just a coward who doesn't want to work — that's how I look at it — and he got schooled by a redneck."

Hurt's girlfriend, Mandy Williams, said the neighborhood has had its share of problems, but nothing like this before. She added that no one in the house has gotten much sleep since the incident.

"We've been on high alert status since it happened," Williams said.

As Hurt pointed at the quarter-sized hole in the wall where he jammed the barrel of the shotgun just before it went off, he said, "That was meant for me."

Reed declined to comment on the accusation, saying only that the Catawba County Sheriff's Office is working its way through a number of leads in the investigation.