‘I got scared’: Woman describes being shot at while delivering newspapers

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A man is charged after the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office said he fired a gun at a car Sunday morning with two people inside.

Lt. Jerry Brewer with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office said it happened around 5:30 a.m. in the 400 block of Normandy Drive.

Sharonda James said she just started delivering papers for the StarNews last week. Earlier that morning, she said her boss drove her around on the route and then dropped her back off at her car in a Walmart parking lot.

James said she drove into a neighborhood off of Carolina Beach Road and had delivered three papers right before she saw a man standing in the street.

Brewer said the suspect, William Hovatter, was standing in the middle of the road and then, yelled at the two people in the car who were delivering newspapers.

James said they thought something was wrong with the man, so they slowed down, but then, she noticed he was pointing a gun at her.

“I got scared, so I ducked down,” James said. “I was scrambling trying to go in reverse and try to go in drive. Then, he shot at the back of my car and the bullet hole went through the trunk.”

James said that Hovatter told detectives they were trying to steal from him, but she said that is not true.

“The description was that a black female and male trying to steal his motorcycle or moped off the back of his truck. He said that’s why he shot at us.”

James said they never got out of the car and they were only in the neighborhood for a few minutes.

Hovatter is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, discharging into an occupied vehicle and injury to personal property.

Brewer said he bonded out of jail. His bond was $10,000.