The Lubbock Police Department is investigating a shooting that occurred Sunday morning at a South Lubbock apartment complex.
Patrol officers were dispatched to the Garden Apartments, located at 1346 65th Drive, around 6:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a shooting. When officers arrived, they found one victim with multiple gunshot wounds.
The shooting victim, identified as Gary Bolton, 27, was transported to University Medical Center. An official with UMC tells EverythingLubbock.com Bolton has been upgraded to satisfactory condition as of early Monday afternoon.
Lubbock Police say the shooting occurred during a possible robbery and home invasion.
The suspect forced his way into the apartment and followed the Bolton upstairs. Bolton then jumped out a second story window. He then got help to call 911.
Joleatha Scott lives in the Garden Apartments, a few doors down from where the shooting happened. She was asleep when Bolton was shot, but she’s still shocked by what happened.
Scott is a mother of three and worries about how crimes like this impact her children. She is especially worried because she explained that her neighborhood has seen plenty of crime in recent months.
“I am scared for my boys to come out, because bullets have come through my backdoor sometimes,” Scott explained.
Brittney Cobbs felt the same way, she moved into the Garden Apartments three weeks prior. On the day she moved in, 18-year old Devin Deshon Holland was fatally shot just blocks away.
While Lubbock is home for Cobbs, she said the violence and crime in the past year has made Lubbock feel less like home for her.
Cobbs said she skipped breakfast on Sunday after she was awoken to an ambulance and police on the scene in front of her apartment.
“It’s sad to be at the point where you’re scared to be outside,” Cobbs said. “At 7 a.m. I come out here to warm up the truck I’m scared, it shouldn’t have to be like that.”
Cobbs and Scott said that making residents in the area feel safer will take a culture change.
“It’s gonna take people actually focusing on this area, right now they only focus on this area when crimes like this happen,” Scott said.
“I think it starts with the people living over here first, like me, and then it starts with the rest of Lubbock actually trying to help with it. There are a lot of things here that they don’t help with, there are a lot of things in these apartments that we go without,” Scott added.
“As a community, we got to do something better, not just us, not just African Americans, we all got to do this together, if not, it’s not gonna change,” Cobbs said.
Both Cobbs and Scott said that after this shooting, they plan on moving.
They also are keeping Bolton and his family in their prayers.
“I’ve really been praying for his family and I’ve been praying for him, I just hope he’s ok because he didn’t deserve that,” Scott said.
As of Sunday evening, Lubbock police say they do not have a suspect in custody.
Anyone with information in this case is asked to call Crime Line at 741-1000.