‘It could be you’ Victim of attempted carjacking shares shocking experience
Sixty-five-year-old Arthur Gilliam went through a lot on Saturday morning. All he wanted to do was get his car washed, but he ended up the victim of an attempted car-jacking on I-240 in East Asheville by a man police say was wanted in Virginia, West Virginia and now North Carolina. “The first thing that went through my mind was, I’m gonna die,” said Gilliam. “Then it was like, you have got to remain calm. Your whole life depends on everything you do right now to avoid a head-on collision with a car that’s got law enforcement behind him.”
High-speed Chase and Confrontation
A Black Mountain Police Department license plate reader camera caught the suspect Charles Judy, 51, driving a stolen car along I-40 in city limits as he traveled eastbound. That began the odyssey that landed Gilliam face-to-face with Judy, who just passed the River Ridge shopping strip exit, crossed into oncoming eastbound traffic where Gilliam was and heading to his car wash. Instead, Gilliam saw cars swerving to avoid Judy and then he saw Judy driving straight at him.
“His intention was to take the car I was in and keep running from the police,” said Gilliam, a U.S. Airforce veteran who worked four years as a weapons controller tech.
Vehicle Collision and Arrest
Photos show Judy clipped Gilliam’s car on the front passenger side bumper. He said Judy then came around to the passenger side and got in Gilliam’s car. “He was like ‘drive, drive, drive!’ And, I was like, ‘you just hit me head-on, where am I supposed to go?’ Then, I see this cop with a gun pointing at us hollering, ‘put your hands up.’ And he’s down in the dash, and I say, ‘Dude he talking to you!’
Gilliam then watched police arrest Charles Judy who’s now in Buncombe County Jail facing multiple charges that could escalate to federal charges.
Law Enforcement Response
“We have found out information he was wanted for multiple car jackings and armed robberies,” said Steve Parker, chief of police for Black Mountain. “On top of that, a stolen vehicle.” Parker said the suspect has charges in West Virginia and possibly Virginia. Gilliam, like other witnesses, credits Asheville police and Black Mountain police along with all law enforcement at the scene with quickly arresting Charles Judy, who did not have a gun on him, investigators said, when he was taken into custody.
Personal Experience and Caution
Arthur Gilliam, with two young children aged 10 and 3, wasn’t about to let Charles Judy do anything more to endanger his life, he said. “He picked the right person to meet his fate, because when he said drive, I’m like dude, I’m not going anywhere. I just wanna go home, see my kids, see my family, and you just messed that up for me. We go through life and we think it’ll never happen to me. And I’m here to tell you it could be you.”
