One arrested, two more wanted in connection to robbery, assault
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 23, 2024
(Tristen Butler was arrested on Monday at approximately 5 p.m. The sheriff’s office still has warrants for the arrest of Eric Coates.)
SALISBURY — One man has been arrested and arrest warrants have been issued for two others in connection to a robbery that left a man in the hospital.
Deputies initially responded to the parking lot of Powles-Staton Funeral Home in Rockwell at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Friday, after officers with the Rockwell Police Department found a man there with injuries to his head, said Captain Mark McDaniel, public information officer for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. The victim was reportedly treated for serious injuries to his head and transported to the hospital.
The man told the deputies that the incident occurred at a party at a home in the 1000 block of Puckett Drive, said McDaniel. He was in his car outside of the home, talking to someone on the phone about an upcoming appointment, when a woman approached him and asked for help finding a credit card that had been dropped.
While he was looking for the card, three men approached him and suddenly pushed the victim to the ground before beginning to hit him, said McDaniel. Eventually, the three men allegedly stole the man’s backpack and everything inside of it, including the victim’s medicine.
After speaking to the victim, the deputies reportedly went to the home on Puckett Drive and searched it with the permission of the homeowner. They did not find the men, but after the search they were contacted by communications, who told them that another deputy had found one of the men, identified as 23-year-old Chandler Austin King, at a nearby gas station, said McDaniel. King was reportedly found in a blue Thunderbird that was owned by another one of the men, Tristan Butler.
King told the deputies that he did know the victim but that he had been at the lake all day and did not know anything about his injuries or the robbery, said McDaniel.
King was arrested and transported to the Rowan County Magistrate’s Office, where he was charged with felony common law robbery and misdemeanor assault inflicting serious bodily injury. King was not given a bond due to the Pretrial Integrity Act.
Warrants were issued for the arrest of the other two men, Butler and Eric Coates, who were suspected to be involved in the robbery, said McDaniel. Their names were also reportedly entered into the National Crime Information Center as wanted.