Douglas Athas, Mayor-Elect

Rowlett Police are investigating several incidents that all seem to involve rounds from the Garland Public Shooting Range that are landing downrange in Rowlett, including one that may have struck a man in the back and another that grazed a bicyclist.

Imagine you are downstairs with your family and you hear an unexplained loud noise upstairs. When you go to investigate, you find a hole in the ceiling of your five-year-old's bedroom and a bullet lodged in the closet door jamb. If you were one Rowlett family, you wouldn't have to imagine because exactly that happened one week ago. About the same time, two blocks away, another resident was calling the police to report that their house had also been struck by a bullet. [Related Fox 4 News story.]

A 1.5-mile line drawn from the shooting stations (red post) straight through the targets shows the centerline of all downrange fire. The blue posts show the approximate location where a man was shot and another where a round landed in the bedroom of a five-year-old. The line passes through the Firewheel Bible Fellowship Church (formerly Victory Park Baptist) and the gray block in the bottom right corner, about 1.75 miles, is Back Elementary. Click the map to link to the active Google map and then turn on aerial view.

Source: Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept

None of it comes as a surprise to the Rowlett man that lives in the same neighborhood that was actually shot in the back in 2010. He was operating a backhoe in his backyard when he was struck. Doctors told him he was very lucky to be alive. An investigation by Rowlett Police concluded that round came from the Garland Public Shooting Range on Pleasant Valley Rd in Garland. No charges were filed because they couldn't prove who fired the round or criminal intent. However, it should be noted that nothing was mentioned in the report that proved the conclusion, a "smoking gun," if you will. [Related Fox 4 News story.]

Rowlett man shot in own backyard. Click graphic for story and video.

Child's bedroom hit by stray bullet. Click graphic for story and video.

Looking at the map to the left, the GPSR is at the red post and the incidents mentioned are at the blue posts. The yellow line runs from the shooting positions straight downrange for 1.5 miles. [Click the map to link to the Google map and zoom in.] The blue flags are approximate, middle of the block. The numerous incidents, which include bullet strikes on several houses and a grazing a bicyclist, all lie close to that line. The range is in Garland but once past Castle Dr, everything is in Rowlett. Along that line are what was Victory Park Baptist Church, lots of houses, and a little further, Back Elementary School.

While the dots do align, there is no evidence that has been publicly revealed that links the dots. At this time, the possibility that the various rounds came from somewhere else cannot be ruled out. Of course, the latest incidents with bullet holes through the roof will allow investigators, CSI style, to literally point toward the source.

If everyone on the range hits the targets, no one decides to fire errantly into the air, and there are no accidents, it could be assumed that no rounds are flying downrange. However, we know that is not always the case. High-power electric transmission lines run along the creek that borders the range. [Visible in the Google map link and the photo above.] Garland Power & Light has to service that section of lines regularly because of the bullet strikes that degrade the lines. Whether some are shooting and hoping to hit the lines or birds on the lines or whatever reason, the lines are being hit, which requires aiming 70-100 feet in the air.

The incidents reported and other evidence are mostly a mile downrange or further. Many claim that a bullet won't travel that far. They obviously are not as familiar with firearms at they may presume. The chart, "How Far Can a Bullet Travel?", from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept shows that most rounds can travel that far and much further. Certainly not from a level shot but if angled enough and under the right conditions, many bullets can travel up to five miles.

The range has been in that location for a long time, long before any houses were built in the area and before the land was annexed into the city. Some argue that the range came first, that it has the some superior right. That argument is nonsense. There is no law that would empower the range to be sending bullets downrange any further than their property line, which is basically a line running 800 feet off Pleasant Valley Rd.

Prior to the last Legislative session, the city had very little authority to regulate the range. In 2011 that slight authority was reduced to virtually nothing. Even if the incidents are tied to the range, the city cannot intercede. Tuesday night the Council will meet in executive session to discuss Rowlett's ongoing investigation and hopefully identify some way the city can increase the safety for all in the area. At the moment, it looks like the best opportunity for safety to all is for the range to take the lead looking for ways to better control those situations and to stop any bullets from leaving the property.

UPDATE: A news story filed after this post adds new information to these incidents and reports how the City of Sachse is responding. That report is covered in a subsequent post.