Woman sleeping in Mesquite apartment shot in drive-by shooting

MESQUITE, Texas - Authorities are searching for the gunman responsible in a drive-by shooting that left a woman sleeping in her apartment seriously hurt.

The victim remains in the hospital in serious condition. While police do not believe she was targeted, they are hoping someone comes forward with information about who is responsible.

Chloe Sheppard describes the sounds that woke her up before 2 a.m. Sunday at the Mesquite Village Apartments near Towne Centre Drive and 635.

“It was repetitive shots. But it was real quick. And then it just stopped suddenly,” she recalled. “I definitely was like, ‘That sounded like gunshots.’ So I looked out my window, which I just live there, but I didn’t see anything.”

Sheppard didn’t call police because she didn’t see any commotion outside after it stopped and later figured it might’ve been fireworks.

“When we get on scene, officers observed that at least three buildings have been shot,” said Mesquite Police Lt. Stephen Biggs. “Inside one of those apartments, we found a 46-year-old female who’d been struck in the head by one of the stray rounds.”

Mesquite police have not identified the woman who remains hospitalized in serious condition. Police are hoping someone will come forward with information that leads to the person or persons responsible for firing more than a dozen bullets into three apartments.

“This is pretty crazy,” Biggs said. “The fact that you could be sleeping in your bed and get struck by a stray round, this is unfortunate. This is unacceptable. We really want to find these folks that did this.”

Sheppard says she had no idea her neighbor across the parking lot was wounded by the gunfire.

“I have a 9-year-old that lives with me so it definitely makes you wonder why something like that would occur,” she said.

Mesquite police say there’s up to a $5,000 Crime Stoppers reward for any information that leads to the person responsible.