Apology no good, man in jail

Police have captured a Gastonia man who allegedly apologized to a woman after shooting into her apartment last week.

Rodney Toledana Rhodes Jr. was allegedly arguing with other men in a parking lot on Aug. 25 over a drug deal when gunfire erupted, according to police. At least one of the rounds struck a South Boyd Street apartment occupied by a 30-year-old woman and her young daughter. 

The woman’s whose home was shot into said someone warned her about what was happening.

“I immediately ran for cover with the kids (and) put them on the floor,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.

The woman said she heard several shots and the next morning, found a bullet hole in a closet. She got angry, she said, and decided to call police.

Rhodes heard that the woman was going to report the incident to police, she said, and came to her apartment to beg her not to.

“He just apologized and said that it was his gun and the bullet that went through my wall,” she said. “I was like, ‘Apology? That's not going to get it.' My daughter could have been dead.”

Police said the incident is one of the strangest confessions they’ve heard from a suspect.

Police took out warrants against Rhodes on Aug. 30 and found him Wednesday. He was charged with discharging a weapon into occupied property and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Rhodes was sentenced to three years probation on Feb. 3, 2009, for a common law robbery conviction related to an October 2008 incident.

You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-869-1823. WSOC TV, the Gazette's news partner, contributed to this report.