LPD is investigating a reported shooting in North Lubbock from Wednesday evening.

Police responded to a shots fired call at a home on the 3200 block of Grinnell Street around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

According to the police report, one of the residents told officers a suspect had come onto his property and punched him “approximately five times for no apparent reason.” The resident said he punched back several times, and the suspect said “‘I’ll be back.'”

The resident told LPD he and his son were standing on the porch, when the suspect’s vehicle returned to the home and the suspect “fired approximately nine shots from inside the listed suspect vehicle at [the resident] and [his son].”

The report stated that the resident’s son ran inside the home and came back out with an AR-15 rifle and returned fire.

The suspect took off and headed east on Grinnell, according to the report. The officer found bullet holes in the resident’s vehicle, as well as “multiple gunshot holes” in the wall of the home. Four bullets from the suspect’s gun were found inside the home, the report said. LPD located eight shell casings from the suspect’s firearm in the street. LPD also found sixteen casings from the other shooter’s weapon in the yard.

According to the report, LPD located the suspect’s vehicle at his residence. His vehicle did not appear to have any damage, LPD said. Officers found the suspect, who told them he had been home “all night,” and that he “did not know anybody that lived on Grinnell Street.” He told LPD his vehicle had been parked in the driveway all night and that “nobody had recently driven it.”

Lubbock Police told EverythingLubbock.com that some of the bullets exchanged during the gunfire ended up in the playground of a school nearby.

Children at the playground at Wolffarth Elementary told police they heard gunshots and witnessed the fight.

Police said one of the minors told officers he was “sitting on a slide on the playground and he observed approximately three bullets fired strike beside where he was sitting.” Another witness corroborated that story.

“Officers searched the playground and found what appeared to be a small bullet hole in one slide, and what appeared to be two bullet holes in a second slide,” police said.

EverythingLubbock.com spoke with a man who lives in the house that was fired at, he said he was the person who fired back at the man who attacked and shot the home.  The man we spoke with wanted to remain anonymous for his safety, we will refer to him as “John” for the purposes of this article.

John explained that after an evening of family video games, his family heard loud music outside their home near the intersection of Grinnell and Hartford on Wednesday.

“The vehicle pulls up in front of our house, a man gets out starts cursing and screaming at us, he gets out of his vehicle and approaches us and assaults my dad,” he said. “My dad ended up beating up this guy pretty good.”

The attacker who pulled up to the home is someone who lives nearby, John said. After that first altercation Wednesday evening, the attacker said that he would return and he did, coming back carrying a gun and firing at John and his family. 

“He emptied the clip, he fired at least thirteen, fourteen shots. He emptied the magazine with what appeared to be a 40 caliber pistol,” John explained.

John said he feared for his family’s safety, so he grabbed his rifle and fired back.

“I was very, very much in fear of my mom’s safety, she was standing right in the range of gunfire, bullets barely missed her head, she ducked in the nick of time,” he said. “I  was shot at as I was running inside, my dad was shot at as he was running inside.” 

The suspect then drove away and police showed up to investigate.

LPD said no injuries were reported, and no arrests were made, though the investigation was still active

“I’ve lived here for 20 years and nothing like this has ever happened before,”  John said.

A police report stated that LPD took away John’s rifle as evidence. John feels less safe now, knowing he doesn’t have his rifle while the suspect is still on the loose.

That suspect left with bullet holes in John’s family vehicle, as well as shell casings which were strewn through the entire block; several shots even landed in his house.

John said that especially because he believes the suspect is living nearby, he worried what would happen if the suspect were to come back again with a gun.

“I want this criminal off the streets,” he said.