For the second time in a month, the young woman in the dark jacket walked out of her South Austin house and learned her childhood friend had been shot.



The first time, in late January, her friend was shot in the foot in the 5200 block of West Congress Parkway where they have lived all their lives. The bullet was still lodged inside when he was shot again around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while driving to a store.



He was hit in the side and thigh and was reported stable at Mount Sinai Hospital.



"Two times in a month?" the woman said, shaking as she smoked a cigarette. "What’s the problem?"



This time, her friend had been shot a few blocks away and managed to drive back to his house. Neighbors found him bleeding in the driver's seat. Two of his car's windows had been shot out. His crutches were propped in the back seat.



Someone called 911 but they grew anxious while waiting for the ambulance. Someone opened the door, leaned over the wounded man and tried driving him to a hospital while crouched awkwardly over his lap. They didn’t get far.



“He was in so much pain,” said his friend, who asked not to be named. “It sounded like it was extremely, uncontrollably serious.”



Once the ambulance arrived, paramedics worked quickly, sweeping him out of the car and getting him to Mount Sinai Hospital, the woman said.



An hour later, the doors of the car were wide open as police worked the scene. Evidence technicians leaned inside with cameras and flashlights, pausing to show a detective bullet holes.



The woman said she and the victim were lifelong friends. They grew up next door to each other in matching greystones. She worries that someone is trying to kill him.



“Clearly that’s the mission,” she said. “Is the next time gonna be a month from now?”



Police finished processing the car and began shutting the doors. Glass from shattered windows showered onto the snowy road. The driver’s side door wouldn’t shut, and the officers had to slam it again and again until it cooperated.



The officers' night shift was just getting started. “It’s not even 11!” a sergeant called out to an officer, half amused, half exasperated.



The 5200 block of West Congress has had a run of bad luck this year.



A 25-year-old woman got in a traffic accident there on Jan. 16. She started arguing with someone in the other car, who pulled out a gun and shot her in the mouth and arm. On Jan. 2, a 36-year-old man was found dead in a house fire down the block.



After things stay quiet for a few days, the woman said, something else pops up.



“Everything started the beginning of the year, like, bam bam bam,” she said. “You’d think it’s hot (outside). They’re out here in the snow really trying to shoot people?”