4 Killed in Attack on High-Stakes Texas Dice Game

Masked men wearing camouflage clothes and ski masks burst in on a high-stakes dice game and opened fire Monday, killing four people and wounding three.

The gunfire erupted at the Glass Key Cafe, a bar in a poor neighborhood known to police as a gambling and drug hangout and the scene of a similar attack last October.

Four men broke into the game, shouted “task force,” and began shooting, police said.

Up to 15 people were inside.

Some scrambled into a back room, and others ran outside to escape the gunfire, Police Chief Thomas Windham said.

“It appears to have been a robbery of a gambling game,” Windham said. “We have information that it was an extremely high-dollar gambling game with tens of thousands of dollars involved.”

The chief did not know if the gunmen got any money before escaping in a car.

The clothes and “task force” reference could have been intended to make the gamblers think they were being raided by police, Police Capt. Randy Ely said. He noted similar tactics were used in a March attack on another gambling spot in which one person was slain.

The bar’s owner told reporters that two men entered the lounge, robbed several patrons who were sitting around drinking coffee and then began firing what he described as semiautomatic weapons.