Dallas security team ambushed, 1 person shot
Dallas TX Feb 21 2020 A security firm that’s been on the front lines of the Dallas war on crime came under fire early Wednesday at the company’s newest location.
One security officer was wounded after being ambushed at the Villas Del Lago Apartments in the 2900 block of Clydedale Drive just after midnight Wednesday.
The security employee was taken by ambulance to Parkland Hospital and was later released.
Three people with ARAJ Security Consulting Services were in an apartment at the complex, where they have lived for the past week.
Security consultant Adriel Turner, who was not injured, said two men fired 15 rounds into the apartment.
“I think they came here with the full intention of killing everybody inside this apartment,” Turner said. “There’s nothing that suggests any warning shots were fired. They simply came and fired everything at head level.”
Turner suspects the shooters were two men he confronted at the complex Tuesday. He said the men had been given keys to an apartment by a woman from Frisco who signed the lease, but the men ran away when he questioned them.
Dallas police responded to the apartment complex and a statement from Dallas police said an investigation is underway.
“We were brought on to handle issues in the owner’s best interests and the tenants’ best interests,” Turner said. “The owner that recently took over this property has spent a lot of money and time and energy into developing this property and making it into a safe and welcoming community.”
Turner said he worked in the neighborhood a year ago when the corner of Clydedale Drive and Overlook Drive was a busy drug sale location for heroin, meth, crack cocaine and marijuana. He said police and property owners had made great improvements in the Northwest Dallas neighborhood since then.
“I think there’s a move from some of the groups that are still operating over here that still want to maintain this area as theirs and they don’t want any interference,” he said.
NBC 5 first saw Turner and his firm in June 2019 at a complex on Ferguson Road at I-635 LBJ Freeway where one drug dealer was so bold, he counted money in broad daylight, right along the busy road, in full view of a television camera.
Turner and his people were also threatened by dealers with guns at that location.
A security guard with another firm is paralyzed after he was shot in December 2018 working at the Texaco store beside that Ferguson Road apartment complex.
The Ferguson Road location had much less drug activity last week after a law enforcement sweep with arrests in that area.
“It is tough work. I have a good group of guys that work with me, and there’s a lot of owners in the apartment community that support what I do,” Turner said. “We really try to work with the city and police on a lot of these matters. The police responded in record time last night to the incident. Hopefully, this will be something that’s handled swiftly.”
