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75-year-old Dallas woman's home shot 100+ times
Laverne Baker says her home's surveillance camera captured the terrifying moments early Tuesday morning as eight people approached and rapidly fired shots.
DALLAS - A former gang member is asking Dallas police to do more to fight gang violence after a group of people opened fire on a 75-year-old woman's home in southeast Dallas.
Laverne Baker says her home's surveillance camera captured the terrifying moments early Tuesday morning as eight people approached and rapidly fired shots.
The gunshots continued from across the street as they drove away.
"Like bombs going off," recalled Baker. "It felt like a war zone."
The 75-year-old showed us how dozens of bullet holes pierced her living room walls, her TV and even her water pipes.
"Bullet holes above your head, bullet hole over there, bullet hole where they shot my window out, and bullet holes through here where they hit my water line," said Baker.
This is the second time it's happened in just seven months.
"The first time they shot I was sitting in that chair looking at the TV at about 10 at night," said Baker. "I think they did worse damage this time, because they shot out all my windows, and they shot my car."
Lamont Levels, who lives nearby, is working to bring attention to what he says is a gang problem in Dallas.
"Growing up in this neighborhood is really a challenge," said Levels. "They put over 165 rounds into her house, that is unacceptable to me."
The Dallas police incident reports call the crime "destruction of property" and "vandalism," but details are lacking and there is nothing identifying it as gang activity.
"I think it is misleading, I think the police know that it is gang-related," said Levels.
Levels says he knows the signs, because he is a former gang member who was blinded by a gunshot.
"We thought we were going to start this gang to provide protection, love for our community. We didn't think of the blueprint of destruction," he said. "I was shot in the temple. I was left for dead by my own gang members. I tell people now God closed my eyes in order for me to see."
Now he's dedicated his life to speaking to young people, warning them not to go down the path he did.
"You are either going to end up in the penitentiary or you're going to end up dead and gone," Levels said.
[REPORTER: "When you hear the message about violent crime in Dallas going down, what goes through your mind?"]
"I laugh about it because I know crime is not going down," Levels claimed. "They don't have gang problems where they live or where they lay their head at night, but there's gang problems over here every night."
Baker says she is praying police capture the shooters before someone is killed.
"You can't live in peace. You never know when they are coming," she said.
Baker knows she was not the target of the shooting, but it is not clear who was.
A spokeswoman for the Dallas Police Department says its Gang Unit actively works cases, patrols and does outreach throughout the city.