JERRY CASE A North Carolina man paroled on a murder charge was shot by a Cherokee County Sheriff's Department deputy after he opened fire on the Sheriff's Department Bloodhound Tracking Unit early Saturday, authorities said.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Leigh Caldwell said Jerry Douglas Case, 52, of Gastonia was airlifted to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center after Case was shot near the Kangaroo convenience store at Highway 18 and Interstate 85.

Deputies were dispatched to the convenience store at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday in reference to a call regarding

four people being kidnapped in Gaston County, N.C.

Caldwell said the suspect had stopped at the store when the persons believed to have been kidnapped — a father, his daughter and two small children — managed to start the car and drive to Blacksburg, where they called police.

The four told police they had been held captive since about 5 p.m. Friday.

Caldwell said officers tracked the suspect for about 30 minutes before locating him in a thick swampy area near the convenience store. Authorities said Case fired at them several times. Police returned fire, striking Case several times.

None of the officers were seriously injured although one suffered a mild scratch.

Case received the death penalty in 1986 for kidnapping and murdering a taxi driver in Tennessee. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder during a 1992 re-trial. He was released from prison 16 years later.

Authorities from Gaston County are interviewing the victims.

The (S.C.) State Law Enforcement Division has joined the investigation.

Case was listed in serious condition at 5 p.m. Sunday, a Spartanburg Regional Medical Center spokesperson said.