A man Dallas Police say pretended to be a maintenance man and tried to break into an apartment is facing multiple charges after getting into a shootout with a resident.
Dallas Police said just after 6 p.m. on Aug. 19 they were called to an apartment complex on the 3800 block of Gannon Lane after a man said two people knocked on his door claiming to be maintenance men who wanted to check the air filters.
"Ah, yes, they came to check your air filters. I'm not sure. This is 8277?" the man can be heard saying through a door camera.
Through the camera, the resident told the men that no one had checked the filters and that no one was home to allow them inside to check the filters and they'd have to come back another time.
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The man claiming to be maintenance thanked him and then knocked on the door across the hallway.
The man left, but returned moments later and can be seen on the camera video holding a pistol and trying to kick in the door.
A second man wearing a mask tried, too, but wasn't able to kick down the door. The man who said he was the maintenance man went back for a second attempt, kicking several more times before he was interrupted by gunfire.
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Police said the resident was home and that when he heard someone trying to kick down his door he grabbed a gun and began shooting through the door.
Dallas Police said the man who tried to kick down the door returned fire as he ran down the stairs.
There were no injuries reported.
In the video shared with police, the shots can be seen narrowly missing the armed man in the hallway as the bullets hit the wall across the breezeway.
On Aug. 21, Dallas Police said 30-year-old Aaron Contreras was identified as the man in the video and was arrested by deputies with the Dallas County Sheriff's Office.
Contreras now faces multiple charges including aggravated assault, deadly conduct and attempted burglary of a habitation. He was taken to the Dallas County Jail where he remains held on bonds totaling $150,000. It's not clear if he's obtained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Dallas Police have not publicly identified the second man who tried to kick in the apartment door and no other arrests have been announced.
Dallas Police said the investigation is ongoing.
RESIDENT MOVES AFTER SHOOTING DAMAGES HER APARTMENT
Isabel Tejera, who lives across the hall from where the shooting took place and whose walls are now riddled with bullet holes, told Telemundo 39 reporter Pedro Guerrero she's moving out of her apartment.
She said the police told her the shooting happened about five minutes after she left her apartment and when she returned home she found police outside and bullet holes in her walls.
"I thank God that my children were not at home at that moment," Tejera told Telemundo 39 in Spanish. "When I entered the apartment I found everything unrecognizable."
