DALLAS — An artist from Oak Cliff was shot and critically injured on Friday while running on the Sante Fe Trail, near Old East Dallas Work Yard Park, according to the Oak Cliff Advocate and the artist's Instagram page.
Police said officers responded to the shooting at about 6:30 p.m. on July 15 in the 4900 block of Santa Fe Avenue, near where the trail crosses Fitzhugh Avenue.
Dallas police said a man was found with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, police said.
The Oak Cliff Advocate reported that the artist, identified as Antonio “Tony” Lechuga, suffered wounds through his stomach to his back and in his left kidney. Doctors performed two surgeries on Tony, according to the Oak Cliff Advocate.
"It's the worst for your family to go through that," Tony's sister, Cynthia, told WFAA. "You don't want anyone to go through that. But it's senseless, is what I'm not understanding."
Tony, who is known for his art exhibition "Fences," said on his Instagram that he was listening to music while jogging and slowed down as he was going to cross an intersection. He said he knew then and there he was shot.
"It felt like someone knocked the wind out of me or hit me in the stomach with a bat," Tony wrote.
Cynthia was the first member of her family to get to Baylor University Medical Center when they got the call Tony was shot.
"You never think it's gonna happen to you we never thought it would be my brother or any family member," Cynthia said. "But it's us now."
Cynthia said Tony's outlook is optimistic.
He's already planning his first activity when he leaves the hospital.
He wants to "cut watermelon and eat it on the porch," Cynthia said. "Like how he did whenever we were young.
The Love Texas Art gallery in Fort Worth, where Tony's "Fences" exhibition was displayed from May 21 to July 17, has made numerous social media posts since the incident offering support.
The gallery will host a fundraiser Saturday at 6 p.m.
Police told WFAA there has been no arrest made in this case and the investigation is ongoing.
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