Raleigh, N.C. — A wreck victim who claimed to have been shot kicked down the door of a Raleigh house early Friday, frightening a family who thought it was a burglar, police said.

Police said that one car clipped another from behind on North New Hope Road at Fawn Glen Drive around 3:30 a.m. A man in one of the cars started banging on doors in a nearby neighborhood, looking for help.

Homeowner Greg Hunter said that he woke to the man banging on the front door of his house, where he, his wife and 12-year-old son were sleeping.

"Ten, 15 seconds later, he kicked the door real hard and kicked the door in," Hunter said. "The young man came running up upstairs, saying, 'Save me. Help me. Help me.'"

The man was bleeding from the back of the head, the homeowner said.

"I was terrified," Hunter said. "Just my family, I was thinking about them, protecting them. I didn't know if somebody was trying to rob us or what."

The man claimed that he had been shot sometime between leaving a club and getting into the wreck, but police said they haven't been able to determine the cause of his injury. He was sent to WakeMed.

Raleigh police officers, a K-9 unit and the County-City Bureau of Identification remained at the scene later Friday morning, trying to piece together the series of events. The door of the home was still open and was surrounded by spattered blood.