ROCKINGHAM — FirstHealth ambulances rushed to the Westside Shell gas station early Tuesday evening to treat a man with a self-inflicted wound on his neck.

Police say it happened around 6 p.m.

The clerk who was working at the store and witnessed the incident stood outside with others while police had the entrance taped off.

She said before the man came inside, he had run by on the other side of the pumps, coming out of his flip-flops, which remained in the parking lot about 20 feet apart after he had been taken to the hospital.

A short time later, she said the man, who has not been identified, came in and jumped up on the counter.

When he turned and looked at her, she knew something was wrong.

“He looked at me and said, ‘You better do something,’” she recalled.

All she could do was call police.

She said “his eyes were completely black and empty…there was nothing there” as he grabbed a razor and cut his own throat.

The clerk said she knew the man, who is a regular customer and “usually a nice guy.”

“I wish I could have done something,” she said. “That’s something you never want to see happen in your lifetime. My heart goes out to his mother.”

As of 9:45 p.m., investigators say the man was in critical condition and being treated for his injuries at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill.

More information is expected to be released on Wednesday.

William R. Toler | Daily Journal A store clerk says a man cut his own throat inside the Westside Shell gas station in Rockingham on Tuesday.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_suicide.jpgWilliam R. Toler | Daily Journal A store clerk says a man cut his own throat inside the Westside Shell gas station in Rockingham on Tuesday.

Staff report