Drive-By Shooting Has Neighborhood Bracing For Worst Family Sleeping In Basement Since Garage Hit

A hail of bullets in the 14200 block of East Cataldo Sunday evening left a car, a garage and the neighborhood’s morale damaged.

Witnesses told deputies they heard several gunshots coming from Cataldo Avenue and Best Road about 6 p.m. When deputies checked the intersection they found nine .40-caliber shell casings in the street.

A bullet hit a car parked on the south side of the street, shattering the windshield and ricocheting onto the car’s floor. Across the street, a bullet went through a garage door before ripping a two-inch hole in a wall as it left the garage. That bullet was not found.

Neighbors considered themselves lucky that no one was injured.

“If somebody would have been in this car on the passenger’s side they would have died - got ‘em in the head,” said a woman who declined to be identified because she feared retaliation.

Across the street, the family who owns the house that was hit by the stray bullet is not taking any chances. They have been sleeping in the basement since the shooting.

“I shouldn’t have to be fearful in my own house,” the owner said, also not wanting to be identified because he feared for the safety of his family.

Neighbors worry that the shooting is related to another drive-by shooting that happened in Millwood this summer. Three people were injured when bullets tore through the door of the car they were riding in at Buckeye Avenue and Argonne Road in August.

Heidi Hughes was one of the Millwood shooting victims. Late last week, Hughes and three friends moved into a house near the site of the Sunday night shooting.

People and cars have been coming and going at all hours since the four young adults moved into the house, neighbors said, leading them to believe that was the target of the attack.

But Hughes dismissed the shooting as a random act of violence.

“Nobody even knows that we live here,” she said. “If they wanted to retaliate, they would have done it when they knew where I lived.”

Though things have been relatively quiet the last few days, neighbors fear the worst is yet to come.

“I don’t think we’re done with it yet,” a neighbor said. “It’s scary to us. We don’t want it here.”

Handfuls of children wait for the school bus in the morning and get off again after school at the corner where the shooting happened.

Neighbors said they plan to do everything they can to make sure they are ready for another round of violence. They have organized a neighborhood watch program that has residents patrolling the streets and logging activity at the corner house in a notebook.

“Anything out of the ordinary, we’re going to be calling the sheriff,” said another neighbor.

, DataTimes