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Shots from car fired at home, police say

Deputies find a gun in a passing car and investigate whether the incident is drug related.

By EMILY VASQUEZ
Published July 29, 2005

PORT RICHEY - It sounded like firecrackers set off in the front yard.

Dustin Alexander, 31, was in his living room with four friends about 3 p.m. Wednesday when he heard it, he said.

But once outside his home at 9304 Sterling Lane he didn't find fireworks, just a white Ford Probe idling down the street.

What Alexander actually heard, deputies said Thursday, were nine shots from a 9mm handgun fired by the driver of that vehicle.

The shots were aimed at Alexander's home and the vehicles parked in front of it.

Deputies are investigating whether the shooting was drug related, said Pasco County sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin.

One bullet lodged in the house's stucco exterior inches from Alexander's 9-year-old-son's bedroom window where the boy was playing, Alexander told the Times on Thursday.

Just after the shooting, Alexander said, he watched the driver make a U-turn at a stop sign and head back toward the house.

As the Probe coasted by a second time, neighbors who had heard shots and come outside got a look at the license plate, he said. Alexander called 911.

As deputies took statements from witnesses outside Alexander's home about two hours later, their patrol cars lining the street, the white Probe appeared yet again.

As the car approached the house, deputies stopped it. They said they found a 9mm handgun under the seat of the driver, 22-year-old Jason Richard Alholm.

Alexander, who moved to Port Richey from Indiana about a year ago, told the Times that he has no relationship with Alholm.

"I've never seen the guy," Alexander said Thursday.

But after the shooting, Alexander said, he's afraid to stay in the house and is planning to move.

"My wife already went out and got a rental book," he said. "We don't know if he's got friends."

Alholm, of Brookwood Drive, was released Thursday without having to post bail.

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 01:12:42]