By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

MOORESVILLE — Rowan authorities continue to look into the overnight shooting of a man who said a masked man shot him, cursed at him and took off down the road.

Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a shooting around 1 a.m. in the 100 block of Phillips Hollow Road and spoke with the victim, Ronald Wayne Freeze. He told investigators he was shot in the left shoulder while standing at the driver’s side door of his vehicle smoking a cigarette.

Freeze saw a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a half mask with a skull print on it walk toward him. Freeze said he asked the man what his problem was, but the guy continued to walk toward him. The man raised up a gun and shot him in the shoulder. Freeze said the man cursed at him and left on Bradshaw Road toward Corriher Grange.

Freeze told investigators the shooting happened about 15 minutes before they arrived.

Freeze told officers he was shot at close range, but the gun was not touching him. However, he had gun powder residue on him, which may indicate he was shot within very close proximity, according to Rowan Sheriff’s Deputy Chief David Ramsey.

Freeze was taken to Carolinas Medical Center NorthEast where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.