Police raid home, arrest parents charged with child abuse, attempted murder of adopted son in Salisbury
Police raided the house on Maupin Avenue where 42-year-old Reed Karriker and 42-year-old Georgianna Karriker lived with five children.
SALISBURY, N.C. (WBTV) - Police raided a home and arrested a man and a woman accused of child abuse and attempted murder involving their 11-year-old adopted son in Salisbury Wednesday afternoon.
Police raided the house on Maupin Avenue where 42-year-old Reed Karriker and 42-year-old Georgianna Karriker lived with five children.
One of the children, an 11-year-old boy, is the subject of a child abuse investigation that led to new charges Wednesday afternoon.
WBTV was there as Salisbury Police surrounded the Karriker home, when the Special Response Team was called in because police believed Reed Karriker had a gun.
The two were arrested without incident, now charged with felony child abuse and attempted murder. Both were put in patrol cars and taken to jail.
According to the arrest warrant on the charge of attempted first degree murder, Reed Karriker and Gerogianna Karriker were charged because they “did of malice aforethought attempt to kill and murder (the adopted son).
On the warrant for the felony child abuse arrest, it says that the Karrikers “did intentionally inflict serious bodily injury, respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, septic shock, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and skin lesions throughout the body” of the adopted son.
Neighbors expressed shock and seeing all of this play out, and they say they had no idea there were that many children in the Karriker home.
“No clue that there was five children living there. Never saw them other than that and my grandchildren are here all the time, you know, neighbors up the street, everybody’s children play outside,” neighbor Jayne Land said.
When the couple was first arrested last week, police said the 11-year-old had numerous injuries and was put in the hospital. He is now recovering, police say.
Search warrants obtained by WBTV regarding a child abuse investigation in Salisbury allege that an 11-year-old boy was found to be suffering from several open wounds and other medical conditions.
According to the Salisbury Police Department, officers said the child was brought to the hospital around 12 p.m. on Jan. 21. by his adoptive parents.
“The child showed possible signs of neglect and was transported to Presbyterian Hospital for further treatment,” police said.
After reviewing the medical information and facts obtained during the investigation, arrest warrants were obtained for the adoptive parents, 42-year-old Reed Karriker and 42-year-old Georgianna Karriker, charging each with one count of felony child abuse, according to the Salisbury Police Department.
The two were arrested on Jan. 27.
The probable cause affidavit says that an 11-year-old boy at the home in the 500 block of Maupin Avenue was found “unresponsive, reportedly suffered sepsis, hypothermia, and multiple open wounds throughout various stages of healing.”
The warrant includes photographs of what are described as open wounds on various parts of the child’s body. The child “had an unknown mass in his stomach that required surgery to remove,” according to the warrant.
It was reported in the affidavit that the child “had not been seen by medical professionals since October 2020. Reed Karriker, the warrant says, was denied a request to refill medication for the child in April 2021 by Novant Health Lakeside Primary Care because the child had not been seen by their office.
The warrant also says that “had not been seen again by a medical professional until admitted to Novant Health Rowan Medical Center” on January 21.
Items seized from the Maupin Avenue home included an iPhone, an Apple Mac, and HP laptop, a Kindle, and an iPad.
Reed and Georgianna Karriker were previously both out of jail on $40,000 bond. With the new charges, bond is set at $300,000 each for the Karrikers.
Georgianna Karriker was listed as a school counselor at China Grove Elementary School.
Rowan-Salisbury School System district leaders were made aware of the arrest and Georgianna Karriker has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.