A woman was shot and killed and a man was critically injured Friday night in a shooting in unincorporated Rowan County near Kannapolis, prompting a SWAT response that ended with deputies taking a suspect into custody at a nearby home. First responders arrived at the 1400 block of Oak Ridge Drive off Mooresville Road to find two gunshot victims, according to the Rowan County Sheriff's Office.
Rowan County Sheriff's Office Lt. Ron Barkley said a woman was shot and killed at the scene, according to WBTV. A man suffered gunshot wounds to his legs and was transported to a local hospital, where his injuries were described as critical but non-life-threatening. The man had called 911 on Thursday to report that he had been shot multiple times, and witnesses reported that the shooter was still in the area at the time.
As deputies worked to locate the suspect, a nearby resident called 911 to report that the suspect had run into his home and was hiding inside. That call triggered a response from the Sheriff's Office Special Response Team and SWAT officers, who responded to the suspect's home and eventually took the male suspect into custody. The Rowan County Sheriff's Office maintains a dedicated Special Response Team that functions as the county's SWAT division, trained specifically to execute high-risk warrants and resolve barricaded suspect situations, according to the Salisbury Post.
Why County Deputies, Not City Police, Responded
The shooting scene's location explains why Rowan County deputies handled the response rather than Kannapolis Police Department officers. Kannapolis spans both Cabarrus and Rowan counties, and the 1400 block of Oak Ridge Drive sits in an unincorporated pocket of Rowan County, putting primary law enforcement authority under the county sheriff rather than municipal police, per the Salisbury Post's reporting on the area's jurisdictional boundaries.
The Special Response Team's operators are also integrated into the Sheriff's Office Criminal Apprehension Team, or SOCAT, a unit Sheriff Travis Allen created in December 2022 by combining street-level narcotics officers, warrant deputies, and SRT personnel, the Salisbury Post reported at the time. That structure has previously supported tactical operations beyond Rowan County's own borders — in May 2024, the sheriff's office's armored tactical vehicles assisted neighboring agencies in resolving a double-homicide barricade situation in Statesville, according to the Statesville Police Department.
Suspect Cooperating, No Charges Filed Yet
As of the article's publication, authorities had not filed charges against the suspect, and the shooting remains under investigation. The suspect is reportedly cooperating with investigators, per WBTV's report, and authorities have withheld the names of the suspect and both victims. Witnesses told investigators the suspect and the two victims possibly knew each other, though that relationship has not been detailed further.
Any eventual charges would hinge on what investigators determine about intent. If prosecutors pursue a homicide charge tied to the woman's death, North Carolina law offers several tiers: first-degree murder is a Class A felony punishable by life without parole or death, reserved for premeditated killings or felony murders, according to the Hiltzheimer Law Office. Second-degree murder, split into Class B1 and B2 tiers since a 2012 statutory amendment, can still carry up to life imprisonment depending on whether malice involved depraved-heart conduct or express intent without premeditation, per the Powers Law Firm's analysis of the statute. For the surviving man's gunshot wounds, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury is a Class E felony carrying 15 to 88 months in prison depending on the defendant's record, according to the Glover Law Firm.
A Broader Pattern of Gun Violence in Rowan County
The shooting adds to a troubling local trend. Emergency department visits tied to firearm injuries among Rowan County residents jumped 73% in 2024, reaching 57 total visits, according to state public health tracking published by the NC Department of Public Safety. Rowan County's overall violent crime rate, at 275 per 100,000 residents in 2023, sits slightly below the statewide average of 312, with aggravated assaults accounting for the large majority of violent incidents countywide.
Annual figures compiled by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation show the Rowan County Sheriff's Office investigated six homicides and 152 aggravated assaults across its jurisdiction in 2024. Friday's shooting is the latest in a string of violent incidents that have drawn tactical law enforcement responses in and around Kannapolis, following a fatal carjacking shooting and other recent cases that remain under scrutiny in the area.
