For the second time in the past three months, unknown suspects
shot into the windows of a home on the 7200 block of Dowdy
Street.
For the second time in the past three months, unknown suspects shot into the windows of a home on the 7200 block of Dowdy Street.
Gilroy Police Officers responded at 2:26 a.m. this morning to a shooting into the home, which contained a single mother and six children, police and sources said. The woman who rents from the house said she and a couple of her children were watching television when her son heard someone cocking a gun and told his mother to drop to the floor.
“My son yelled, ‘Mom, duck! Duck!'” said the 29-year-old woman, who would not give her name because of fears for her safety.
Suspects blasted two holes into the home’s windows, a smaller one in the bedroom of her son and a large gaping hole in her bedroom. No one drove by the house, and the woman guessed that someone had fired the shots from the sidewalk. She said no one saw the suspects before they ran away.
The woman who lives at the home said someone had shot at the house Nov. 23, damaging the window to the living room. The Nov. 23 incident involved two unknown suspects who were wearing black clothing and black bandanas covering their faces, according to police.
During the Nov. 23 shooting, she said her son happened to be ducking down to insert a DVD when shots were fired. He would have been hit if that were not the case, she said with tears in her eyes.
“I tell my son, ‘God’s looking out for you, mijo,'” – which means “my son” in Spanish – she said.
The woman who rents at the home suspected that the culprits in both instances were gang members, although she said she had not been involved in gangs for at least eight or nine years.
“Just because we talk to people in our past doesn’t mean anything,” she said.
She said none of her children are involved in gangs, and her oldest son likes to wear yellow, which is not a gang color.
However, a couple of neighbors said the home that was shot and an apartment complex at the southern end of the street are the only residences that tend to have problems.
One neighbor said that she has seen people wearing gang colors walking to the woman’s house. She said the neighborhood was relatively quiet before the family moved into the area.
The neighbor said she did not see anyone fire the shots this morning, but she heard the gunfire and heard a woman swearing afterward.
Another neighbor said he was asleep and he did not even hear the shots. However, the gunfire set off his car alarm and caused his dog to start barking.
The woman who lived in the house that was shot said people often are drinking as they hang out on the street at night, and she feels gang problems in Gilroy are growing.
She said she looked forward to moving out of the neighborhood, saying she was tired of the home being fired upon.
“My kids do not come outside no more,” she said. “We’re like isolated in the house.”
Police said the investigation into this morning’s incident is still in preliminary stages, and there are no suspect descriptions. Police said they did not find firearms, but that they collected unspecified evidence at the crime scene.
Anyone with information about the crime can contact Gilroy Police Department at 846-0350. Callers wishing to remain anonymous can call (800) 782-7463.
View Shot fired into Dowdy Street home in a larger map
