‘I just shot him’: 911 caller reports shooting his son at North Hills shopping center

The first person to call 911 about a non-fatal shooting Sunday at the North Hills shopping center was the shooter himself, according to 911 calls.

“I just shot him,” the caller said frantically while on the phone with a 911 operator.

The caller said he shot his son, whom he said was trying to assault him and his wife.

The shooting on Nov. 27 drew a swarm of police to North Hills around 7:30 p.m., frightening holiday shoppers and leaving one man hospitalized with non-fatal injuries. The shooting took place near the Regal movie theater in the Main District, a central gathering spot in the shopping complex on Six Forks Road.

The Raleigh Police Department has not identified the men but previously said the shooter and victim knew each other. No arrests have been made, and no update has been provided on the condition of the man who was shot.

In 911 calls released Wednesday, a man calls at 7:20 p.m. requesting police presence at North Hills to report that he was being assaulted by another man, whom he described as 19 or 20 years old, and said was his son.

Just over a minute into the call, a physical altercation and yells are heard over the phone, and the caller starts to frantically request for emergency responders to arrive.

Then, he said he shot him.

“I just shot him... he just shot himself — I shot him,” the caller said. “He was trying to hurt me.”

The caller said “sit down!” repeatedly while on the phone and appears to tell his wife to treat the wound on the person he shot.

“I have the gun in my hand,” the caller said after the 911 operator asks for the location of the gun.

The caller said he would put it in his car before responders to arrived. He described what he was wearing in the call so that he could be identified.

He told the 911 operator that the man shot was still conscious and breathing, saying that he shot him once in the stomach.

Toward the end of the call, the man told the operator that police arrived and said that his son “was trying to assault me and my wife.”

How witnesses reacted to shooting

Retail employees from different businesses at North Hills frantically called 911 after hearing gunshots.

At 7:22 p.m., an employee at Ben & Jerry’s reported hearing something that sounded like a gunshot and a physical altercation outside of the movie theater.

Another 911 call was made by a frightened employee locked in the back room of Anthropologie with two other coworkers, who called to report the shooting.

She said she saw and heard two women screaming outside of the store and described whom she believed was the shooter.

The caller said she heard “a guy yelling at people to get down” and that she heard a gunshot outside of her store.