WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) — FOX 8 is learning more about the group Winston-Salem police say is responsible for the chaos at the Hanes Mall Boulevard Target last week.
Police believe two men from Fremont, Ohio, and one man from Marion, North Carolina, are at the center.
The men are connected to an Ohio-based group called “Dad’s Against Predators” or “D.A.P”
According to Winston-Salem police, 28-year-old Jay Carnicom, 29-year-old Joshua Mundy and 37-year-old Jason Chipps went inside Target to confront a 25-year-old man they lured there by making him believe he was meeting someone underage.
The group started filming the man, and the man slapped the phone out of one of the “D.A.P” member’s hands.
They started fighting, and the man allegedly there to meet someone underage fired his gun, hitting Carnicom in the leg.
The group took the man’s gun and ran.
According to the Assistant Chief of the Fremont Police Department, Carnicom went to a local area hospital to seek treatment for the gunshot wound.
He says he wasn’t surprised when he got word the group was involved in the situation.
He’s dealt with them for years and tells FOX 8 they’ve been banned from various grocery stores in the Ohio area because their meet-ups turn into physical violence.
The assistant chief acknowledges the group has brought awareness to a problem, but his agency can’t condone their tactics.
FOX8 reached out to Mundy to get his side of the story.
In a message, he tells FOX8 he can’t get into details, but his group is cooperating with the investigation and maintain they did not do anything wrong.
In a post on Mundy’s Instagram, he says he is “heavily considering retiring and removing myself from the field.”
Fremont police say Mundy and Carnicom do not have any past charges related to D.A.P activities.
Winston-Salem police have not filed any charges against the people involved and say this is still an active and open investigation.
