‘I went south from nowhere,’ says Tank Dell as Houston Texans star talks about mass shooting that left him hospitalized

HOUSTON Texans star Tank Dell has opened up about a mass shooting in Florida that led to him being rushed to the hospital.

Dell, a sophomore, suffered minor gunshot wounds during a shooting at a nightclub in Florida on April 27.

“For me, it was just wrong place, wrong time,” Dell said on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast while sitting next to Texans quarterback CJ Stroud.

“I went back to see my mom. I wasn’t even planning on going back and going to the little pool party or something.

“But my boys saw I was at home so they contacted me.

“They told me there would be security measures, people would be checked at the door, stuff like that.”

Caught in the crossfire, Dell was one of 10 injured that night at Cabana Live.

Following the incident, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office named 16-year-old Christopher Bouie as the shooter.

According to arrest documents, a fight first broke out outside the club.

Uninvolved in the fight, Bouie then allegedly “turned around and pulled out a black and silver (9mm) handgun and began shooting in the direction of a crowd of people.”

The incident was captured on the club’s security cameras and the video showed Dell running for cover.

None of the injuries sustained that night were life-threatening.

Dell said in his new interview that he knew a lot of people at the club and explained how things quickly escalated.

“It went south out of nowhere,” he said.

“And I thought I had removed myself from the situation.

“When you see on the video that I came across, I thought I had moved away from the situation, from the altercation where they were fighting, but I put myself in the middle of two people.”

Stroud went on to say that he found out the next day, right after leaving a Philadelphia 76ers game in Pennsylvania.

He explained that he was informed by a Texans public relations representative, saying that after seeing that Dell had been shot, he dropped his phone and “started crying.”

“When you hear that, you think the worst,” he recalled, adding that he immediately started praying for his teammate.

Stroud called the experience “eye-opening.”

“It was a good moment for me to realize that I couldn’t go home and do the same things that I was doing,” he said, while noting that he normally attended clubs and parties.

“It’s a blessing to have a brother like this,” Stroud added.

“And now I know he’s going to tell his story, and I feel like God sent his toughest soldiers into his toughest battles so that we can be better equipped for what we’re going to go through, but more importantly for what others need to do.” hear.”

Fortunately, Dell recovered quickly and was able to return to OTAs three weeks later.

“Happy to have Tank back,” head coach DeMeco Ryans said after Dell’s return.

“He went through a very tragic situation.

“We’re just happy he’s here, happy he’s able to do what he loves to do again and that’s play football.

“It’s fun to see him running around. Being the same player he was before, making plays and being a dynamic player for us.

“Everyone is excited to see Tank.”

A third-round pick by Houston in 2023, Dell was one of the stars of the NFL last season.

In the 11 games before his fibula fracture, Dell totaled 709 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.