‘He’s awake, but he’s been shot in the head’ mother says during 911 call

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Pender County mother received a call that her son had been shot, so she left her job three minutes away to hurry home to him, 911 records reveal.

On Tuesday morning, Pender County deputies responded to Bell-Williams Road where they found Zachary Barnes, 26, shot in the head.

His mother called 911.

“Is he alive, breathing?” the 911 operator asked.

“I don’t know. I’m at the house now,” the mother said. “He’s awake, but he’s been shot in the head.”

When 911 asked if there was a gun nearby, the mother explained there was no gun because her son didn’t do it.

“Somebody drove by and shot through the windshield of the car,” she said. A little later in the call she added, “He was in the vehicle that (got) shot through the windshield and it shattered and it shot him in the right top of his head.”

The mother was able to ask her son questions, so she relayed to 911 that it happened on Pineywoods Road and her son drove home. The mother also named Hayden Hines as the suspect.

The operator tried to get more details about the wound.

“You can see where it went in the top part of his head and he’s just got a bunch of blood coming down… it’s almost near the center. You can see where it’s swelling up,” the mother said.

Soon after, law enforcement arrived.

Deputies arrested Hines, 18, Tyler Hines, 21, and Christopher Rivenbark, 21.

They appeared in court Tuesday morning and remain under a $325,000 bond.

They are charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied conveyance inflicting serious injury and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

Deputies say the men are also wanted in connection with car and home burglaries in Penderlea, Willard, Watha and Atkinson. Deputies say the shooting happened when Barnes confronted the alleged shooters about a family member’s home that had recently been broken into.

Barnes was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.