Football and track coach Terrence Lowery was driving two students home when another car pulled up next to them and started shooting, Dallas Police say. NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman talked to Keio Gamble, a community activist and friend, who helped Lowery that night.
Roosevelt High School in Dallas closed Friday after a shooting incident took place on Thursday evening.
Dallas Independent School District confirmed that two students from the school were shot off-campus around 6:40 p.m.
Police said both students, ages 16 and 17, were taken to the hospital and are stable.
Keio Gamble, a community activist and friend of the Roosevelt High School football and track coach Terrence Lowery, said he got a call from Lowery right after the incident.
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"He called and just said, ‘Hey man, I’ve been shot at,’ and I just said, ‘I’m on my way. Where are you at? I’m on my way,’” Gamble recalled.
Gamble said Lowery was driving two of his football players home after practice. They had only gotten about a mile away, on Bonnie View Road, near the Cedar Crest Golf Course.
Dallas Police said that's when another car pulled up next to them and started shooting.
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“He said he just started hearing the… gunshots, the glass shattering. The entire side of the passenger side was mauled with bullets," Gamble said.
Gamble, who drove Lowery home that night, calls his friend a hero.
“Immediately he stopped the car, reversed, turned around, went back to the school, on the way to the school he called 911, and just got him and the young men to a safe place," Gamble said.
Lowery was not injured in the shooting, but Gamble said it's been a lot to process for him.
“At first he started saying, ‘I’m okay,’ then he said, ‘No, I’m not alright,'" Gamble said.
Gamble said Lowery is close with his players, often driving them home. He's been a coach at Roosevelt for about a year.
After the shooting, the district posted to social media alerting parents and students that the school would be closed Friday “due to a credible threat.”
Dallas ISD told NBC 5 that the administration, led by the superintendent, made the decision after receiving several reports from tipsters late Thursday night and discussing the information with Dallas police. The district said police deemed the information credible, and that's when the decision was made to cancel classes.
Police said they are still investigating and say an “unknown suspect” in a vehicle shot two people in the car, but do not yet have a description of the suspect or the car.
“My message to that person is: That can’t be the way. That’s absolutely not the way," Gamble said.
He said he's focusing on helping the victims heal and knows one of the students personally.
“One I spoke to recently, just the other day. He’s looking forward to next season coming up, looking forward to college," he said. “Just an average young man, playing football, looking forward to his football career in high school and just what life has to offer.”
He said the community needs to work together to improve the quality of life and mitigate violence.
Gamble said he's confident both students will bounce back physically.
“You hurt. Because what does that feel like for him? What is he going through? What pain is he going through? What trauma is he experiencing? What confusion may be happening, and what’s his mental space right now?” he said.
He said working through that trauma will also be important, for the teens and their coach.
“Some people might see one type of young man. We see kids. We see babies," Gamble said.
