A Gold Hill man has been arrested after deputies said he pointed a firearm at firefighters who were attempting to assist him Sunday evening.
The call initially came in as an unresponsive patient with a potential cardiac arrest in the 13700 block of U.S. Highway 52, in Gold Hill, according to Rowan County Sheriff’s Office reports. Deputies were notified and began responding at approximately 8:40 p.m. due to the potential for the call to be an overdose.
While deputies were responding, fire personnel notified the communications center that they had backed out of the area after the man became responsive and pointed a pistol at them, according to a sheriff’s office spokesperson. Deputies were also reportedly notified that a second person on scene had retrieved a rifle from a nearby truck.
Officers from the Rockwell Police Department and Granite Quarry-Faith Police Department reportedly arrived before deputies.
Deputies utilized a drone to get a better view of the residence, according to the spokesperson, and encountered a female and male outside the house and detained them.
The female reportedly told officers that Michael Earnhardt, later identified by deputies as the patient who pointed the pistol at fire personnel, was inside a residence in his room. The female told deputies that she had been on the phone with Earnhardt and asked him to come out of the residence without the pistol, according to the spokesperson.
Officers on the scene reportedly called for Earnhardt to come out with his hands up. At some point, he allegedly made contact with the female and said he did not understand why officers were wanting him to come out. A few minutes later, he came out of the residence without the pistol and with his hands raised in the air, said the spokesperson.
Deputies reportedly obtained consent to search the residence and a building on the property. They found a black AR-style BB gun and a rifle in the corner of the building and a tote containing plastic bags with approximately 126 grams of marijuana, glass jars containing approximately 28 grams of THC resin and various items of drug paraphernalia in the residence.
Earnhardt was reportedly transported to the hospital with chest pains.
Deputies reportedly obtained a search warrant to conduct a more thorough search of the residence, and Earnhardt allegedly told them where they could find the pistol. The spokesperson said that deputies found a loaded black Canik TP9SF 9mm pistol where Earnhardt had told them that it was located and that the serial number on the pistol had been removed and marked over with black markings.
Earnhardt was discharged from the hospital, and was then arrested and charged with felony possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana, felony possession of marijuana, felony possession of firearm by a felon and felony alteration of a gun serial number, and several misdemeanor charges.
He was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center with no bond due to the pre-trial integrity act, as he was on probation for a 2025 assault. He was convicted of felony possession of a schedule II controlled substance in 2006, according to N.C. Department of Adult Corrections records.
