A couple of businesses in the Dallas Design District have safety concerns after someone shot out front windows multiple times.
The owners of Don Morphy, a high-end custom suit clothing store, said between July 30 and August 5, someone damaged multiple windows at their business and the one next door.
“Driving up to your business and then see the window shattered, it was really scary. I thought someone was initially in the business,” said Sonya Mofor, the chief operating officer of Don Morphy.
She said they noticed it in the morning, but realized no one had tried to get inside.
After boarding up the window, Mofor said someone shot and damaged the window at the business next door a few days later during the day.
“Initially, we thought we were targeted, but because they broke our neighbor’s window, we knew it wasn’t just us, it was just somebody vandalizing the businesses,” explained Mofor.
She said that same week, the same thing happened again to another window at their business.
“So my main concern is just if a client is walking into the store and someone tries to vandalize it, instead of hitting maybe the windows, it could hit somebody easily,” explained Mofor.
The owners of both businesses believe someone used a BB gun because they found a pellet and a BB gun cartridge on the ground.
They provided the evidence to police and also filed a police report.
“They said they would get back to us in 5 weeks, to us, that’s a really long time to resolve this issue,” expressed Mofor.
Dallas Police didn’t specify how long it would take to look into the situation, but said they are investigating.
The business owners have their theories on possibly where someone is shooting from.
“Given the angle where the windows were shot at, we’re kind of suspicious it was the tenants,” stated Mofor.
They don’t have concrete evidence that someone is shooting from the apartment across the street.
On Tuesday, glass repair companies showed up at the businesses to take measurements to start the replacement process.
“Each window is about $3,000 to $4,000 to board it up and replace it,” said Mofor, who said they’re filing a claim with insurance. “It’s a lot of money.”
As they work on adding more safety measures, Mofor said the boarded-up windows also hurt their advertisement, since their windows show displays of the suits.
“It’s really bothersome because when people drive around here or clients come into the business, the first thing they look at are the mannequins in the window, because it pretty much displays what we have in store, so it acts as advertising for the business,” said Mofor.
“With some of our windows boarded up, it kind of disrupts that advertising.”