DeSoto man survives being shot in the head by suspect
DESOTO, Texas - Police believe a DeSoto man is yet another victim of a suspect in recent violent crimes in Dallas and Fort Worth.
James Edward Floyd is charged with kidnapping a Dallas man at gunpoint on Sunday and taking him to Terrell. Floyd was arrested Tuesday at a home in Terrell.
A Kia SUV was also stolen during a home invasion Tuesday in Fort Worth, where an elderly husband and wife were shot. The SUV was later found at a Terrell apartment complex. Floyd has not been charged in those shootings.
RELATED: Man wanted for Dallas kidnapping connected to FW home invasion
Sean Mathis says he narrowly escaped death at the hands of Floyd. He was shot in the head, left for dead, but miraculously survived. Mathis says the man he let in his home last Friday that he thought came to help him actually had plans to harm him.
Police say evidence connects the man who shot Mathis to the incident in Fort Worth.
Mathis says he let Floyd into his home because he was answering his ad for a handyman. Mathis left him working in the bathroom, let his dogs out a sliding glass door and sat down on the sofa.
“This man came around the corner with that gun and said, ‘All I need you to do is get down.’ And I jumped up,” Mathis recalled. “He said get on the ground. He turned the gun sideways, so I got on my knees.”
Mathis says Floyd told him to start crawling.
“I said, ‘Man, Don’t kill me. Dude, don’t kill me,’” he recalled.
Mathis said he was on his knees looking up at the picture of his son on the wall.
“He said, ‘Who is that?’ And I just looked up on that picture right there on that wall,” Mathis recalled. “I said, ‘Sir, that’s my son. Pease don’t kill me.’”
Mathis says Floyd forced him to lie face down and demanded money. He put a blanket, a rug and dog pillow over his head and fired one shot.
“I flipped over,” Mathis said. “That n***a was running out. I still saw the smoke from his f****ng gun.”
Mathis was in the hospital when he watched FOX 4’s story of the Fort Worth couple shot by a man. He said he immediately told DeSoto police to say that man was the same one who shot him.
“We believe it very well possibly could be connected to our offense,” said DeSoto Police Sgt. Chris Huerta.
Police are working with Fort Worth detectives to compare notes and match evidence.
“It’s an absolute miracle that he survived this,” Huerta said.
Mathis says he knows he was kept by a power greater than him.
“The Lord's prayer, I had the bible on that table,” he said. “I know I ain't supposed to be here, but I’m here and I’m so grateful.”
After being shot in the head, Mathis says he somehow got up and ran to neighbors asking for help since the gunman took his cell phone. Miraculously, the bullet went through his head and didn’t hit anything before lodging in his chin. Doctors were able to safely remove the bullet.