FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – A Houston-area DoorDash driver claims he was shot at after he tried to drive around a group of men riding horses.
The driver, who wants to only go by his first name, Matthew, says he was delivering an order from Panera Bread to a home in the Rosharon area on Saturday evening.
“It’s kind of funny when you take an order from Pearland and takes you out into the country, 15 miles away,” Matthew told KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding. “It kind of is unexpected, but not abnormal.”
Following his GPS, he turned down County Road 57 on the border of Fort Bend County and Brazoria County. That’s when he ran into a long line of cars backed up on the rural road.
“Not far down the road I run into a long line of cars that were, maybe moving like one mile or two miles an hour,” he said.
It wasn’t an accident, but rather three men riding horses along the two-lane road.
Matthew claims that the riders wouldn’t let him or any other drivers in front of him around.
“The first truck, they would not let him get around. He’d try to go left. One of them would get right in his way,” Matthew explained. “He tried to squeeze into the right. They’d move to the right. Across both lanes, three horses, they weren’t letting that truck go.”
The two pickup trucks in front of Matthew got fed up and drove through a roadside ditch to get away.
Meanwhile, Matthew was in a small car and didn’t have that choice.
He waited for a few minutes, hoping to get around the riders. Matthew even rolled down the window to try and ask to get around them.
“They told me to shut my b**** a** up,” he said.
Matthew, who was recording, drops his phone as he says the men on horses boxed him in and taunted him.
“One of them dismounts off their horse,” he said. “Another rider got to my right and blocked me off. And then the guy who gets off in front of me said he was going to pop my a** right here.”
Matthew floored it to get away.
“That’s when I hear, basically it sounded like an explosion.”
That explosion was a gunshot.
One of the men fired a bullet at Matthew’s car, hitting his trunk. The bullet went through the trunk and hit a frying pan before going through the back driver’s side seat.
Somehow that impact was enough to slow the bullet down to where it just fell in the backseat, never reaching Matthew in the driver’s seat.
Investigators with the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office found the bullet lying there.
“I feel like somebody had my back,” Matthew said. “I didn’t even understand the night when the cop that found the bullet was like, ‘You’re really lucky.’”
Feeling lucky, and also livid, Matthew now wants these three guys to be found and face justice.
“Didn’t seem very well thought out on his own, which is why I want him caught,” he said. “Because without any repercussions, it’s obviously likely he’s going to do something like that again.”
The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office says they are investigating, but don’t have any suspects in this case. They are also working with nearby law enforcement agencies.
DoorDash provided the following statement in regards to the incident:
“What happened to Matthew was shocking and extremely concerning. We’re relieved he wasn’t seriously harmed and appreciate his patience while we looked into his report. After review, we have removed the lateness violation from his Dasher account. We stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way possible and hope the perpetrators are held accountable for their reckless and dangerous crimes. We care deeply about the safety and well-being of Dashers, and like Matthew, we would encourage any Dasher who feels or is in an unsafe situation to report it to us immediately.”