Taser used on suspect after attack on woman

Police say ex-boyfriend cut his neck after being shocked; both recovering

Friday, November 3, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

A Claremont man is recovering at a Catawba County hospital after cutting his own neck and being Tasered on Thursday by officers who were trying to arrest him after his former girlfriend was attacked nearby.

Bobby Casey Henry, 41, will face charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, communicating deadly threats and injury to real property when he is released from Catawba Valley Medical Center, said Maj. Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office.

Henry is currently on a three-year probation for assaulting the woman, whose name Reid would not release, in August 2005, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.

Reid said Henry's ex-girlfriend was driving to work at 6:30 a.m. Thursday on Rock Barn Road near Oxford School Road when a Nissan Maxima veered toward her head-on. The Nissan struck the side of the woman's car, Reid said, before backing up and running into it again.

The woman got out of her car to inspect the damage, unaware of the identity of the other driver, Reid said. She was standing next to her car when the driver of the Nissan drove his vehicle toward her, hitting her car and crashing into her legs, he said.

When the woman recognized the driver of the Nissan, she scrambled away from him, Reid said. The man grabbed the woman and slammed her head into the pavement several times, Reid said, leaving her unconscious in the middle of Rock Barn Road.

A witness called authorities after the man drove away in the Nissan. The man stopped in a driveway on Rock Barn Road to change a flat tire, Reid said.

When officers from the Catawba County Sheriff's Office arrived, the man had locked himself in the car, had called 911 saying he was going to kill himself and was holding a knife to his throat, Reid said.

Reid said he told the man to get out of the vehicle, and when the man didn't comply, Reid detonated a distraction device that flashes bright lights and makes loud noises. Officers then broke the Nissan's windows and shocked the man with a Taser, he said.

The man was still holding the knife when the Taser stopped shocking him and he ran the blade across his neck, Reid said. The injury, Reid said, was not life-threatening.

The woman was also being treated at Catawba Valley Medical Center. Reid said she is expected to recover.


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