During the past three weeks, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office has been receiving a large number of criminal mischief reports in the southwest portion of the county involving a suspect(s) shooting at vehicle windows with a BB gun.

The Tyler Police Department is also receiving an excessive amount of these reports as well.

This rash of criminal mischief incidents began on May 14, 2019 and have been steady as of this date.  On May 17th alone, there were a total of 12 reported criminal mischief incidents.

The Sheriff’s Office has been receiving about 2 to 3 reports every few days.  The suspect(s) appears to be using a BB gun to shoot at vehicle windows.  The most frequent target is parked vehicles, however, the suspect(s) did hit one moving vehicle on HWY 155 South.

The victim of this particular incident only described a “dark passenger car.”  In a separate incident, the Tyler Police Department received a report from a victim seeing a “dark colored car” as well.  In this report, the victim stated that he actually observed a suspect shooting a BB gun at his vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office has also had one of our patrol vehicles damaged in the same manner while parked at a residence.  As a result, the entire back glass was shattered, rendering the vehicle unusable for patrol until repaired.

The suspect(s) have also started targeting businesses along HWY 155 South.  The Sheriff's Department has reports of glass being shattered at these businesses along with other damage reported.

If anyone has any information concerning these crimes, please call the Smith County Sheriff’s Office at (903) 566-6600.