In Pleasant Grove, Man Frowns at SUV, Gets Shot

It was a rough Monday night in Pleasant Grove. And by night we mean the 10-minute period between 11:30 and 11:40 p.m. And by Pleasant Grove we're referring specifically to a half-mile stretch of Lawnview Avenue. According to police, there were three separate incidents, all involving guns: one attempted car burglary that ended in a hail of gunfire; one robbery featuring guns but no gunfire; and one shooting with no robbery.

Police responded first to the burglary. According to a Dallas PD incident summary, a 48-year-old woman who lived near the corner of Lawnview Avenue and Belgrade Avenue was monitoring her home security camera when four men in dark hoodies pulled up outside her gate. The woman went outside to alert a 50-year-old man — presumably her husband, though the report doesn't say. They both watch as the four guys in hoodies start rifling through a parked car, then run  down Lawnview when the car alarm goes off. "What are you doing?" the man yelled as they passed, at which point the "suspects produced guns and began shooting at the victims," per DPD. They missed, and the woman called 911.

A few minutes later, while police were investigating the attempted shooting, officers were flagged down by a man who explained that he'd been sitting in his car by the park, drinking a beer, when four men walked up to him, pistol-whipped him and demanded his stuff. They stole his cell phone and car keys, but not his car, before fleeing down Lawnview on foot.

Finally, not far away, police responded to several 911 calls in the 3100 block of Lawnview Avenue reporting a man knocking on doors asking for help. The reason the man was asking for help, police quickly discovered, was that he'd been shot. And why had he been shot? Because, as police paraphrase him in their write-up, he had walked past an SUV en route to the Lawnview DART station and had "mean mugged (frowning face) the vehicle because they were 'mean mugging' him." The driver rolled down his window and flashed a pistol, prompting the aspiring DART rider to break into a run, at which point a back-seat passenger rolled down his window and fired a shotgun, hitting him in the leg. The man was taken to Baylor Hospital for treatment and is in good condition.

Dallas police say they're not sure yet whether the incidents are related.

Send your story tips to the author, Eric Nicholson.