North Carolina deputies fatally shoot man holding family member hostage

Authorities in Catawba County, N.C. say that a man who was holding a hostage at gunpoint was shot and killed Saturday.

Deputies with the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a hostage situation on Village Circle, just outside Hickory — a city of about 44,000 people located 50 miles northwest of Charlotte — early Saturday morning.

“When deputies arrived they discovered that an adult male was holding another adult male family member hostage,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Saturday. “The hostage-taker was armed with a handgun.”

The hostage is believed to be the man’s son, local television WSOC-TV reported.

Crisis negotiators and deputies made several attempts to de-escalate the situation and encourage the man to release the hostage, according to the news release.

However, despite efforts made by deputies and the negotiation team to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner, “the hostage-taker continued to threaten the hostage and was shot by deputies.”

Emergency personnel treated the suspect at the scene but he did not survive.

The hostage’s life was “in danger,” Capt. Aaron Turk told the TV station. “We took action that we felt was necessary to save the hostage and bring the situation to an end.”

Sheriff Don Brown spoke about the “tragic” incident in a statement, saying that his department would “assist and cooperate fully” with the State Bureau of Investigation as they conduct an investigation.

The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office is also conducting an internal review.

Neither the hostage nor any deputies were hurt in the incident.