Car crashes into home, man found shot inside vehicle

By Michael Barrett
The Gaston (N.C.) Gazette
Published: September 6, 2008

Gastonia police believe a man shot himself Tuesday before the car he was driving ran into a local home north of Ashbrook High School.

De’baugh Ray Curtis Wilson, 22, of Danville, was found dead behind the wheel, with a bullet wound to the head, after his Saturn sedan wrecked at 1277 Huntsmoor Drive.

Police and paramedics arrived and found a handgun near Wilson in the car.

“There are some things that were revealed yesterday through the autopsy and other investigation that suggest it was self-inflicted,” said Gastonia Police Sgt. Jimmy West of the gunshot wound.

Homeowner Jarrett Friday, 31, and his wife, Jaime, were sitting in their living room at about 11 p.m. when the car rammed their house and knocked their front door in. Friday said they called 911 and found that Wilson still had a pulse, but he was dead when paramedics arrived.

Wilson was from Danville, but had been living nearby in Carriage House Apartments with his girlfriend, who is pregnant, West said.

The wreck occurred in a subdivision near the intersection of South New Hope and Armstrong Park roads. The car hit a small dogwood tree and went airborne before slamming into the house, police said.

• Reprinted with permission of The Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C.