The victim of an attempted carjacking says a split-second decision saved his life early Thursday morning.
Mario Lewis said he’d been waiting for a friend at Providence on the Park Apartments at 8501 Old Hickory Trail in Dallas when two men tried to carjack him at gunpoint. At that moment, the man decided he wasn’t going to give up his keys or his life.
“They just came up, snatched his car door open and told him to get out. He said he just threw it in drive and took off,” said Elizabeth Lewis, the victim’s grandmother. “They probably would have killed him if he got out of that car.”
As Lewis sped away, the gunman opened fire. Lewis said he knew he’d been shot, but that he was so desperate to escape that he rammed through the front gates of the apartment complex. He then called 911 and drove a few blocks to Wheatland Road where he waited for help.
Lewis had been shot four times in the back and arm. His grandmother said, miraculously, the father of two was in and out of the hospital in just a few hours.
“They let him come home because they said there wasn’t any bullets on the inside and said it didn’t damage any of his organs or anything. He was blessed,” said Elizabeth Lewis.
Police are still searching for the carjackers. Lewis believes the gunman is only in his late teen or early 20’s and thinks his accomplice is even younger.
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Dallas police previously told NBC 5 that Lewis had been leaving his girlfriend’s apartment. Lewis tells NBC5 that he’d been picking up a friend.
