Photographer is Shot at While Taking Photos of the Dallas Skyline
A photographer had a terrifying incident while taking pictures of the Dallas skyline when men chased and shot at him.
Ron Shipp was on the Houston Street Viaduct over the Trinity River and believes a group of men targeted him for his camera equipment.
“I’ve been out here countless dozens of times,” Shipp tells NBC DFW. “Day and night and never once felt unsafe.”
However that changed on Wednesday, April 12 after he heard voices coming from beneath the bridge while out shooting at 23:00 and instantly felt unsafe.
“Probably within 30 yards of leaving my car I could hear voices in the shadows behind me,” he tells Fox 4. “I saw some movement but I couldn’t see people. It concerned me, but not a lot.”
“Every time I walked out, they kept coming closer and closer. They weren’t on the bridge, I knew that much,” he says.
“I looked over the bridge again and saw two men 20 yards away and I realized they were using the outside ledge and the handrail to kind of walk and approach me hidden down low.”
Shipp says the sight of two grown men going to that much effort to approach him in the dark really scared him.
When Shipp realized that there was a group of at least four men stalking him, he began to run toward downtown — that’s when he heard gunshots.
“I saw flashes from a handgun and heard six shots right in my direction, it motivated me to run much faster,” he explains.
Shipp avoided being shot and reported the incident to the police. He has gone public with his story to warn other photographers who frequent there for photos.
“Empty bridge does not mean you are safe,” he adds.
Shipp regularly sets his camera up from South Dallas to capture stunning landscape shots of downtown Dallas.
“This is one of my favorite and most frequent locations to visit,” he tells Fox 4. “Especially after dark when the city is lit up.”
Despite the scary episode he plans to come back to the bridge but this time with a group of photographers.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
