A Mount Airy motel owner was hospitalized Monday after being run over by a vehicle during a dispute with someone staying at the establishment, city police say.
An incident, described by police as a civil disturbance, unfolded around 9 a.m. at The Hollows Motel on South Andy Griffith Parkway (U.S. 52).
It involved a dispute between management and an occupant of the motel who allegedly had caused damage to a room there.
“Somewhere between that, a member of management was run over,” Police Chief Dale Watson said, with that person identified as Stonie Dunbar, a co-owner of The Hollows Motel.
“The vehicle actually backed over him and pushed him to the ground,” Surry County Emergency Services Director John Shelton said.
“He was alert and conscious,” the police chief said of the injured man’s appearance at the scene.
It initially was thought that Dunbar would be transported to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem due to the extent of his injuries, Shelton said, but instead the motel co-owner was taken to Northern Hospital of Surry County.
“He was stable when we treated him,” Shelton said.
Couple sought
As of Monday afternoon, authorities were seeking a man and a woman identified as suspects in the incident that injured Dunbar.
The names of the two haven’t been released, with Watson saying that warrants had not been issued at that point.
But the police chief said both are facing felony hit and run charges.
“One was driving and one was a passenger,” Watson said, explaining that each is subject to the hit and run violation due to not remaining at a scene where bodily injury was caused by their vehicle.
Tom Joyce may be reached at 336-415-4693 or on Twitter @Me_Reporter.