A door-to-door salesman was shot at by a homeowner in Fort Worth.
The man, who asked not to be identified, is not injured thanks to a tablet that stopped the bullet.
“I’m just shook up,” said the salesman.
In his ten years doing door-to-door sales for Reliant, he said he’s never had a day like Thursday and has the proof.
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“That's where the bullet would've came out,” he said as he pointed to the bulge in the back of his work tablet.
He says he was going door-to-door in an East Fort Worth neighborhood on Thursday morning around 11:30 a.m. asking homeowners about their electric bills. He knocked on this door in the 3100 block of Purington Avenue and said he was met by a man with a gun.
“He just came out and just straight pointed the barrel at me and then shot me and told me to get away from here n****. I'm lucky it didn't hit me it hit the tablet,” he recalled, adding he usually wears the tablet by his side.
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Thursday, the tablet was slung across his stomach.
The salesman got away and called the police.
“When we arrived to the location, nobody was inside the residence,” said Fort Worth Police Officer Buddy Calzada.
Police say there's now an arrest warrant for the homeowner who could face aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and hate crime charges.
“You’re looking at several different charges because you just cannot fire a weapon at a human for absolutely no reason, no threat involved,” said Calzada.
A photo of the tablet taken by the salesman, he says, shows the hole in the table before the bullet was removed.
“This is the one thing I always fear -- getting shot at the door and today it happened,” the salesman said.
He says he wants the confrontation to have consequences for the homeowner.
“I got two daughters. I could’ve been in the hospital dead now,” he said.
In a statement, Reliant said, “We’re in the process of learning more, but thankfully the sales agent was not harmed. The safety and security of sales agents is our top priority, and we are working with local law enforcement on next steps.”
