RICARDO, Texas — The countryside is a popular spot for neighbors to go dove hunting or simply practice at their own ranges. But that usually happens during the day. When neighbors hear gunshots at night, they said that turns into a different story.
“When its 10:30 p.m. at night and its in your backyard its alarming,” longtime Ricardo resident Danny Pena said.
On Monday night, Pena had just stepped outside to let his two dogs out when one of the dogs started to freak out.
“I walked around the corner of the garage and there was a gunshot. It was right behind our house in between mine and my neighbors and it hit close to where I have my tractor and my truck parked,” Pena said.
Pena said he’s been around guns long enough to know that it was a rifle he heard. He thought it might have been his neighbor shooting, so he called to ask. Pena said the neighbor told him she thought it was Pena’s family shooting. They were both wrong.
“So it was somebody that was behind there that shouldn't have been shooting at that hour,” Pena said.
He believed it could have been a trespasser.
“My first instinct was to go inside and get my gun and go back outside and try to find out who's back there,” Pena said.
Pena said his neighbor was also outside walking her dogs in her front yard when she heard the gunshot. After she asked Pena’s family if it could have been them, she called the Sheriff's Department.
“A deputy eventually came by, just drove down the road, spotlighted and kept going,” Pena said.
Pena said he was outside his house with a different neighbor from down the road when the deputy drove by their house. Pena said the deputy never stopped at his house or his neighbor, who called the department.
KRIS 6 News reached out to the Kleberg County Sheriff's Department for confirmation and clarification on what happened that night.
Captain Longoria with the Sheriff's Department said the caller left it up to the officers if they felt they needed to make contact with her they could. They made contact with others in the area, who redirected them to an abandoned house where the deputy found nothing.
Some neighbors said they protect their houses and windows with special materials that block out any dangerous sounds at night, helping them feel more at ease.
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