County called ‘wild west’ after another drive-by
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The victimized business, McMinnville Mercantile, a furniture store located on New Smithville Highway and operated by Mel Dixon, was hit with between five and seven shots from a large-caliber weapon.
‘This is almost getting like the wild west,” said Dixon who discovered the damage when he opened the store Friday morning. ‘I really wish this hadn’t happened. There’s no sense in it.”
Dixon said he saw insulation lying on the floor and looked up to see what at first looked like frost in the window. However, he soon found out it was bullet holes which had shattered the upper part of the window.
‘You can almost tell where they were when they just started firing into the building,” Dixon said, noting he has no doubt the crime was a random shooting. ‘It looks like they sprayed the top level of the window with a high-caliber weapon. I count six holes.”
Dixon, who left the building around 9 p.m. Thursday night, said there were bullet holes in one or two entertainment centers in his store.
As for possible motives, lawmen are looking at a couple of possibilities. One is that a copycat shooter has begun firing randomly into buildings after alleged serial shooter Deon Fisk, 26, was arrested Thursday for shooting a White County man in a drive-by shooting on Sparta Highway the week before.
The man was wounded in the hip and has recovered from the injury. The victim said the suspect pulled beside his vehicle, rolled down the window and opened fire. Fisk and the victim had exchanged words at Wal-Mart minutes before.
In addition to shooting the White County man, investigators suspect Fisk was the person who shot into a house on Spring Valley Road, close to the house where he was staying at the time. The caliber of weapon used in the two shootings was the same, and lawmen suspect ballistics will confirm the same gun was used in both attacks.
Another possibility for the McMinnville Mercantile shooting, lawmen say, is a vain attempt by friends of Fisk to make lawmen think they have arrested the wrong man for the previous shootings by committing drive-bys while Fisk remains held under $800,000 bond. Investigators say they have no doubts Fisk was the original shooter, adding they hope to make more arrests, not only for the McMinnville Mercantile shooting, but perhaps for the shooting on Sparta Highway.
Anyone who heard gunshots between Thursday night and Friday morning at the intersection of Lowry Lane and New Smithville Highway is asked to call investigators at 473-8738 to help pinpoint what time the drive-by happened.