Four inches higher and he thinks the bullet might have come through the windshield and hit him as he rode in the passenger side of his family’s SUV.
He and his wife met two other couples for dinner at Manna last Friday night. Around 11 p.m. they left the trendy Princess Street restaurant, and his wife, nearly eight months pregnant with their third child, was behind the wheel, taking Third Street to Dawson, headed home.
At the intersection of Dawson and Eighth streets, the couple observed one white and two black men on the corner where there are some retail storefronts across the street from the Jervay Community.
He thought it was weird that a white guy was hanging out in what’s considered a black neighborhood. She thought one had a gun.
Suddenly, all three young men started half walking/half running in the same direction the couple was driving, toward midtown.
Nearly 10 blocks later, closer to the intersection of Dawson, 17th Street and Oleander Drive, the couple found themselves in the middle of a gun battle.
Passengers in two cars, one on either side of them, were firing shots at one another.
He says this is when it turns into a scene from the movies: the first car zooms past. The second vehicle pulls up about three feet from his wife’s head. All he can see is a black arm, a shiny watch and a large caliber handgun. As the chase ensues, the speeding vehicles cross the low concrete median at the intersection in front of Checkers. The couple hears about 10 shots fired and they feel it when a stray bullet hits the grill of their vehicle, lodging in the radiator.
He dials 911, choosing to meet the police at his home where he and his wife give their statement to the Wilmington Police officer, who tells them there was a lot going on that evening around the same time.
In retrospect, the young men they saw gathered on the corner of Dawson and Eighth must have already been hearing shots as they began running away from the sound.
At 11:27 p.m. he posted his brush-with-death experience on Facebook: caught in gun battle on the way home from dinner tonight. two cars beside us started shooting at each other and we caught a bullet through the front grill into radiator. ?!?! well antifreeze all over the driveway now is better than blood. people without brains should not have guns!
Among the OMGs! Where were yous? That’s scaries! So glad you are alrights!, 67 friends Like it, 3 Share it, 144 Comment. At 11:34 p.m. one friend chimes in: Shots fired around 8th and Dawson too. Cops flying around the neighborhood.
At 11:49 p.m. another comment: Our police force hierarchy should have an overhaul. Evangelous will not be missed!!!!
Another commiserates: [We] had a brick thrown at our car in the same place. [He] got out, left me and kids, and gave chase. Bad spot. The cops told us it’s that sleazy bar with the prison bars on the windows.
And another: I hate it when real life imitates a bad Hollywood movie and my brain refuses to believe what it’s witnessing. Mine was a high-speed weaving car chase on the Interstate, but no gunfire.
Through the wee hours of the night and into the next morning, as the Wilmington Police Department reportedly picked up shell casings from Sixth to 17th streets and searched for the two alleged perpetrators who were found with bullet holes in their vehicles, friends continued posting:
Right after we moved into our house; there was a full on gunfight car Chase on our corner-mid afternoon on a weekend. Two cars ditched. Shooters ran away. Left one guy shot in front seat of a car full of heroin packaged for distribution. They dug bullets out of at least 1 house close by. Amazed there was no human collateral damage.
One friend writes: I hate to say it, although it wouldn’t have mattered in that situation, but that’s why I carry.
Another reply: I hate to say it even more … but this is why no one should carry.
That thread continues: Carry legally . . . . There’s a difference. Having had gun education and an extensive background check to acquire a permit. I don’t think the guys involved in this shooting had either. But let’s not have this debate here.
Minute by minute, hour after hour, new posts surface, as the suspects are charged. Wakeel Stewart, 19, is charged with discharging a firearm in city limits and Kolton Thompson, 25, is charged with resisting arrest. Even though both have priors — attempted murder in a shooting in Creekwood last year — each is rapidly out on bail.
More comments: Booked at 5:18am, released on bail at 5:42am. Are you freaking kidding me? The criminal justice system is flawed and broken.
And more replies: Agreed. And why is discharging a gun within city bounds what one is charged with when you’re shooting AT someone? Why isn’t that attempted murder? Which would make it the second round of attempted murder for these two.
Released to do it again and kill somebody the next time???
So far, this bad Wilmywood movie has a happy ending, or does it?
In his last post, our subject writes: Tragic but true their destiny seems to be prison. I just hope that I am not the [guy] they have to kill to get there.
Editor’s note: Italicized portions were taken verbatim from Facebook and have not been edited for grammar or content, except where bracketed.
