Sheriff's deputies got the call to the business on Homestead Road near the Eastex Freeway around 6:30am.
Authorities say this looks like a robbery attempt. According to deputies, a woman drove up to the game room in a white pickup, walked up to the door and showed the security guard her membership card.
"It's a private club, so all the customers have to be members," HCSO Sgt. Joe Helm explained.
While the guard was looking at the card, the masked gunman jumped out of the back of the pickup and started shooting, hitting the security guard once.
"The male came behind her with a shotgun and confronted the security guard and ends up shooting the security guard," Helm said. "The security guard shot back and the male and the female take off running around the back of the building."
Customers at the game room were caught in the middle, diving for cover as the shots were being fired.
"They came through this way, and I sat there," witness Michele Cheema said.
Cheema remembers every vivid detail. She sat in a chair outside the game room in the middle of the shootout.
"Next thing I know, the door opened up," Cheema said. "This guy in a ski mask had a shotgun in his hand."
Deputies say both men fired several shots, but remarkably no one other than the security guard was hit.
In the middle of it all was Cheema, too startled to even move from her chair.
"The middle of the back of it, you can see one bullet hole there, and one bullet hole there," Cheema said. "I got lucky."
Neighbors tell us the game room seems to be a magnet for crime and that shootings and robberies are common around here. Nearby resident Rayford Skleton tells us he'd like to see the place shut down.
"I've heard 87 shots back there one night," Skleton said. "You know, it gets a little bit hairy down here. I get down on the floor sometimes between my two beds."
Deputies say the game room stays open 24 hours a day, but doesn't appear to be illegal.
"A lot of these game rooms are popping up around town, and they'll be in business for a while and then they'll shut down and move somewhere else," Rayford Skelton said.
Deputies are still looking for the two suspects, who they say were both armed.
The security guard is expected to recover, and Cheema is just glad no one was more seriously hurt.
"I got just a scratch right there," she said. "And I've got the security officer's blood right there."
We spoke to a man who knows the security guard. He said spoke to him and that he was taken to Ben Taub Hospital and should be OK.
Sheriff's deputies are still looking for the two suspects. ANyone with information can call HCSO or Crime Stoppers.
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