At least five people were shot Wednesday morning in the 2600 block of Forbes Road in Gastonia, and the suspect was not immediately in custody as dozens of officers flooded the residential street. Gaston County Police told the public to steer clear of the area while the multi-victim scene was secured, and emergency crews worked to determine the extent of injuries.
Initial reports indicated at least five people were shot, with the shooter still at large during the early hours of the emergency response, according to Times Now. Dozens of officers responded to the block, and Queen City News, which first reported the heavy police presence, sent a crew to the scene as the investigation unfolded. Queen City News described the situation as a developing story in its initial coverage of the heavy police presence in the neighborhood.
Gaston County Police advised residents to avoid the 2600 block of Forbes Road as multiple law enforcement units and news crews converged on the scene Wednesday morning, per WCNC Charlotte. The station's report captured the scale of the response as officers worked to secure the area while the investigation remained active.
A Neighborhood That Had Already Reported Gunfire
This is not the first time residents along Forbes Road have called attention to gunfire in the area. Citizen safety monitoring logs show 911 callers reported gunfire along the road on August 15, with residents voicing heightened concern over what they described as recurring shooting incidents nearby, according to citizen-reported data. Those earlier calls specifically flagged past violence in the immediate vicinity, months before Wednesday's shooting drew a much larger police response.
The stretch of Forbes Road where the shooting occurred sits within a residential subdivision that includes single-family homes built as recently as 2024 by major developers such as D.R. Horton, according to listings reviewed by Realtor.com. The corridor is also part of a growing suburban zone; Gastonia planning updates show city leaders approved a corridor study for Neal Hawkins Road that includes plans for a privately built extension of Forbes Road to Hudson Boulevard.
Why County Police, Not City Officers, Are Leading the Response
Because Forbes Road sits in unincorporated Gaston County, primary law enforcement responsibility falls to Gaston County Police rather than Gastonia's city police department. Established by legislative act in 1957, Gaston County Police is one of only two independent county police departments in North Carolina, maintaining patrol authority over unincorporated areas while the Gaston County Sheriff's Office handles court operations and the county jail, according to the UNC School of Government. Most North Carolina counties rely on their sheriff for unincorporated patrols, but Gaston and Mecklenburg counties are exceptions.
Gunfire Injuries Have Been Climbing Countywide
Wednesday's shooting arrives amid a documented rise in gun violence injuries across Gaston County. Eighty-seven county residents required emergency department care for firearm injuries in 2024, a 64% increase from the year before, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety's Gaston County Violence Profile. Firearm injuries have made up a growing share of emergency room trauma visits in the county as a result.
Citywide crime data tells a more complicated story. N.C. State Bureau of Investigation figures compiled by OpenCrime recorded 723 violent crimes in Gastonia in 2024, including four homicides and 582 aggravated assaults, putting the city's violent crime rate at 849.5 per 100,000 residents, about 137% above the national average, per OpenCrime. Yet Gastonia Police Department figures reported by WFAE showed overall reported crime in the city fell more than 6% from 2023 to 2024, with crimes against persons dropping over 8%, and municipal officials credited targeted enforcement initiatives for the multi-year decline.
Part of a Pattern of Recent Gaston County Shootings
Wednesday's incident follows a string of recent violent episodes across Gaston County that Hoodline has covered in recent months, including a deadly Mount Holly road-rage shooting just two days earlier and an August shooting on Barkley Street that hospitalized one person. In July, Gastonia police relied on Real Time Crime Center audio detection and Flock safety cameras to locate suspects in a shooting on Ware Avenue, illustrating the department's growing reliance on automated surveillance technology in gunshot investigations. It remains unclear whether similar tools are being used to track a suspect from Wednesday's shooting on Forbes Road.
