String of shootings leaves Northeast Austin neighborhood fed up
AUSTIN, Texas - A neighborhood in Northeast Austin is on edge after a string of shootings.
FOX 7 Austin reporter Angela Shen first told you about Tuffit Lane in May, when neighbors were worried about a series of drive-by shootings. Another one happened in June.
Tuesday, neighbors said suspects were shooting a car in what appeared to be an act of retaliation.
Resident Joe Ayres, who FOX 7 Austin has spoken to twice before, had his house hit Tuesday in broad daylight.
"I'm in the back corner as far as I can get away from the street in my house, because of this s*** over, and over and over," he said.
In video captured on Ayres' surveillance cameras, he says suspects were behind a tree shooting at a van driving by.
"They're pissing people off, people are shooting at them, people are coming by here, they're shooting at their people, it's a back and forth, it's not stopped yet," he said.
A bullet went through his wall, through a case of beer cans, and got lodged in another wall.
"I didn't know at the time my house was shot until the police started looking at everything and goes, 'your house got shot, too,' like, 'oh shuck!'" Ayres said.
He says other neighbors have already moved out.
RELATED STORIES:
- Drive-by shootings in North Austin neighborhood leave residents living in constant fear
- Shooting caught on video; neighbors on edge after string of drive-by shootings
- Mother of 14-year-old fatally shot in head calls shooters cowards
"It's just scary as hell that we have to live here. We are afraid for our lives over here," he said.
APD had initially thought that Tuesday's shots fired call was related to the case where a 14-year-old girl was murdered on Howard Lane in June, but it's now clarified that the two cases are not related.
Police also said two months ago, at least one person was arrested at a house on Tuffit Lane. That stemmed from a drive-by shooting on Howard Lane in May where a teen was shot multiple times.
Ayres says he just wants an end to the violence.
"It's just amazing, amazing, that no one has been hurt right here with all this gunfire," he said.