Drive-by Shooting at the Gray Family Homestead

An Eyewitness Account by Ed Hohmann

On Labor Day, September 4, 2000, I visited with Joe and Alicia Gray on their 47-acre homestead on the banks of the Trinity River near Trinidad, Texas. Around 7:00 PM, as we sat in the 110-degree shade of the oak trees near the entrance to their property, a dark colored pickup truck drove by on the dirt road. Joe smiled at the people in the truck and waved "hello" to them in a friendly manner, so I assumed that they were either friends or neighbors.

As they passed by, I saw a young man sitting on the bed of the pickup with his back leaning against the cab, casually holding a shotgun across his lap, the barrel of which was pointed directly at the Gray property. About 20 yards down the road, he fired the shotgun. I was still under the impression that these were friends of the Grays, so I assumed that it must have been a blank. However, the Gray family members immediately stood up and called to Jonathan, the eldest son, to see if he was all right. Jonathan had been in his usual place near the fence, videotaping the truck as it drove by, just as he documents every other vehicle that passes. Joe and some of the others had seen bits of leaves falling from the trees directly over Jonathan, so they were concerned for his safety. Jonathan had hit the ground when the shot was fired, and was unhurt.

Further down the road, the young man fired a second shotgun blast across a clearing through which the Grays' house is visible from the road. Luckily, neither shot caused any damage, other than a few leaves being knocked off of the trees.

There had been previous incidents where shots were fired at the Gray farm in the middle of the night, but this was the first drive-by shooting that had occurred in broad daylight. Fortunately, Jonathan had videotaped the entire incident, so now there was proof that could not be ignored.

The Grays' immediately called the Sheriff's Department to report the incident, and within twenty minutes, four patrol cars carrying five Deputy Sheriffs pulled up in front of the property to investigate.

Jonathan and his mother, Alicia, walked up to the fence to report the details of the shooting. The deputies were extremely courteous and professional, asking questions to make sure that they understood exactly what had happened.

I had copied Jonathan's footage of the shooting onto my video camera, so the deputies asked to view it. I walked over to them and played the scene back for them, stopping the tape so that they could see the faces of the perpetrators. A sign clearly visible on the side of the pickup said, "Ronnie's Service Co. Inc., Malakoff, TX".

Everyone filled out witness statements about what had happened, and the deputies were given a VHS copy of the shooting itself as evidence to aid them in identifying the perpetrators.

The following day, Milton Ray Sparks, Jr. was arrested for firing the shotgun at Jonathan Gray. The three other individuals in the pickup, one of whom is believed to be a police officer in a nearby town, remain under investigation by the Sheriff's Department.