HOUSTON – Houston police said they are investigating after a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was shot Thursday night.
Officers said the shooting happened in the 4700 block of Clover Street close to 10 p.m. According to investigators, police believe the shooting was a setup.
Investigators said a man in his late 50s drove to a home to deliver a pizza and exited his vehicle. That’s when he was attacked by a suspect or suspects and was shot multiple times, police said.
Officers said the man was transported to the hospital by ambulance and is in critical condition at this time.
According to police, the suspect or suspects took the victim’s vehicle. Police said a vehicle believed to be the pizza delivery driver’s was located at 3600 Nita St.
Investigators said residents that live at the address told officers they didn’t order any pizza.
Tarek Salti, a manager at Pepperoni’s Pizza, which operates 16 different pizzerias in the Houston Metro area, said he still delivers pizza to homes as well when the need arises, and he agrees that delivering food at night can be a dangerous job, given the fact delivery drivers are alone and vulnerable.
That’s why he has this advice to other pizza shop owners to keep their drivers safe.
“I encourage other pizzerias to accept only pre-paid orders over the phone, paid by credit card in advance to keep drivers from having to carry cash. If my drivers do not feel comfortable getting out of their cars in a certain area, they do not have to make the delivery to the door, they can call the customer and have the customer come to their car to get the pizza and I tell our drivers if they are not comfortable putting the delivery sign on top of their cars, they do not have to do that. In 30 years, we have never had an incident like this happen to any of our drivers,” Salti said.
The pizza delivery driver in this case is still hospitalized and has had to undergo surgery to remove the bullets.
Houston police have not interviewed the victim yet due to his condition, but they say he is expected to survive.