For the first time, Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell talked about the night he was shot in public, stating it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dell spoke up on the “Million Dollaz Worth of Game” podcast this week, when he and colleague C.J. Stroud were featured in an episode that was released.
On April 28, at a private function in Sanford, Florida, Dell was hurt when gunfire resulted in the injuries of ten persons. After sustaining a slight injury, Dell resumed working at the Texans’ OTAs.
“I’m blessed, you know, to start with. In my opinion, it was simply the wrong time and place,” Daytona Beach, Florida native Dell stated on the program. “When my boys realized I was back home, they hit me up and said, ‘drive up to the party.’ I hadn’t even planned to attend the small pool party or anything. They informed me that there would be security, that individuals would be screened at the door, and other such procedures. I think, “All right, cool.” There are a lot of people I know there, which was fantastic, and there’s a nice feeling.
“And then, out of nowhere, the s— simply appeared. It suddenly took a bad turn.”
In the footage, which the police have made public, Dell is seen right in the thick of the confrontation as shots are fired. Charges against a 16-year-old suspect included attempted murder, shooting a weapon in a public setting, using a handgun while committing a crime, and unlawfully possessing a firearm by a juvenile.
“I believed I had distanced myself from the circumstance. As you can see in the video, I believed I had moved out of their little disagreement when I ran into them, but instead I put myself between the two of them, and things got insane.”
Stroud described the incident as “eye-opening” and said he was at a New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers playoff game when he heard from the Texans that Dell had been shot.
“After reading only that “Tank got shot,” I dropped my phone and started crying uncontrollably. He stated on the show, “You know, when you hear that, you start thinking the worse.”
He stated that it “was a good moment for me to realize that I can’t go home and do the same things that I was doing, too.”
“Cause sometime I go home, that’s where I’m comfortable at, going to the pool parties, going to the bowling alleys, like the skating rinks to the house parties, like, these the people I grew up with, I ain’t change cause I got a little bit of money,” stated the man. “But for that moment to happen that quick, it was like an eye-opener experience, not only for Tank but really for rest of the world and athletes all around.”
When Dell sustained a broken leg during a game against the Denver Broncos in early December, his rookie season came to an end. When he got hurt, he had 709 receiving yards and was on track to get 1,205 yards.