part of a South Side shooting range will be closed

“This is a very difficult case,” said Judge John D. Gabriel about measuring public safety against a family's livelihood.

The Municipal Golf Association-SA first won a temporary restraining order on March 14 after Mission Del Lago golfer Justo Flores was struck in the chest by a stray bullet prompted allegations of unsafe conditions at the shooting range. There has never been any proof that the bullet that struck Flores came from A Place to Shoot.

During those two decades, these are the first reports of unsafe rifle fire involving the golf course.

On the stand, a course employee couldn't say definitively that what he heard was a bullet. No round was found.

Gabriel recognized there was no proof ping g15 driver bullets had escaped the range. Even so, he was swayed by testimony from a forensic firearms expert hired by the MGA-SA — and hammered on cross-examination by the range's attorneys — that rounds could escape.

People are known to go hog hunting in the wooded area near the golf course.

Gabriel's ruling capped four days of sometimes passionate and other times laborious testimony covering the intricacies of the Texas Health and Safety Code, the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, and the National Rifle Association guidelines on construction of shooting ranges.

The rifle section of A Place to Shoot has been closed for 50 days at a loss of about $1,000 per day, according to testimony Thursday.

Attorneys for both groups said they would confer on whether some of the 72 rifle targets could open so the business Titleist 712 MB irons  will not lose as much money. That hearing could happen in about 10 days.

“My client sells golfers cashmere vests, not Kevlar vests,” MGA-SA attorney Bill Ford said during closing arguments.

Two course employees said they heard what they thought was a gunshot then a bullet “whizzing” by their heads.

Flores intervened in the injunction lawsuit and blames both parties for his injuries.

The attorneys for range owner discount golf clubs Robert Wilkerson and his family had no comment, but Wilkerson's wife could be seen shaking her head during the ruling.

Wilkerson has owned the Pleasanton Road business for about one year, but it's been in operation for more than 30 years. Mission Del Lago was built about 20 years ago, according to testimony.