Bert Ramos spent most of his life providing transportation for the residents of Ladyville in his faithful Ramos Bus. He thought he'd made no enemies up until Christmas Eve, when bullets tore into his house and car.
Ramos was sleeping when a gunman stood on the street and opened fire. Ramos wasn't hurt, and he says he won't be scared off so easily. Courtney Menzies has this story.
55-year-old Bert Ramos, the proprietor of Ramos Bus Line, woke up on Christmas Eve morning not to the sound of reindeers, but to gunshots. His vehicle and his home had been targeted, leaving bullet holes behind. Today he told us he had no idea until the police came to his house.
Bert Ramos, Businessman
"About 3:45 I just hear the shots starting to lick off. They sounded close, didn't know that it was my house so I only heard the shots, come out, walk around in the hall, and I went back to lie down. Until about 4:45, the police, I went into my bed and lied down and I was looking at the camera and saw the police lights at my gate. So I came out and I asked the police what happened. They said, you don't know your vehicle got shot up? I said, no man. So when I came out and checked the vehicle, it had three bullet holes, so while looking around, I said, let's check the house, and when we checked right over the door, a next bullet hole was there. So my neighbor came around and said they heard a knock on the zinc house which is the next house here, and they heard knocking like a bullet knock there so when I went and checked the house, I saw a bullet hole there too and went inside and checked, and I saw a bullet stuck in the 2x4."
And Ramos says that he believes someone wants him dead, but he doesn't know who or why.
Bert Ramos, Businessman
"All I have to say yes because why are you shooting the vehicle and the two houses and the thing is that I don't know why because I don't have any enemy with anybody, I am not a person who has any friends that you would say come sit at my house, I am straight animals, I'm cows, horses, donkeys, dogs, those are my friends so I don't have anybody to say they come look for somebody at my house so I wouldn't know why."
Courtney Menzies:
"Are you now feeling a little bit unsafe in your own home, maybe coming in and out of your gate?"
Bert Ramos, Businessman
"Well, I'll be honest with you, I'm already 55, if one of them wants to come shoot me for nothing then I will leave that in the hands of the almighty, I won't let them scare me off, I don't scare, I live my 55, sweet life I live, I enjoy my life I could tell anybody, I enjoyed my 55, so if they want to come shorten that 55, no problem, I will just stand strong, I'm a person, I depend on the flexibility of the body and the power of the almighty."
And Ramos has surveillance footage on his side, which he says he will leave in the hands of the police.
Police have made no arrests.
