A Dulono's Pizza delivery driver was shot during an apparent robbery attempt early Saturday and was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
While en route back to Dulono's following his last delivery for the night, the driver as shot around 3:15 a.m., said his employer Jared Gruett, who owns the Uptown Minneapolis bar and restaurant.
Andrew Gryskiewicz, 30, was finishing his shift with one last delivery to a residence near E. 31st Street and Park Avenue but never returned to work. He'd been with the company for nearly a year, Gruett said.
"By God's grace, Andrew was found unconscious in his car by officers of the MPD before he bled to death," Gruett wrote on the bar's Facebook page. "Heroic and gifted surgeons repaired the hole in his heart and have given him the chance to fight for his life."
Minneapolis police responded to the intersection of 3rd Avenue S. and E. 31st Street — less than a mile from the restaurant and 6 blocks from his delivery — on a report of a man slumped over in his car. The victim was found with a gunshot wound in the chest and rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Catherine Michal.
It remains unclear whether Gryskiewicz was shot during an altercation at the site of the delivery or randomly targeted on the street corner during an attempted carjacking.
"There's a 50-50 chance it had nothing to do with work at all," Gruett said. Dulono's delivery personnel do not have any sort of roof signs on top of their vehicles.
"To shoot an unarmed person point-blank like that is pretty depraved," Gruett said.
Gruett credited the bystander who immediately called police after finding Gryskiewicz bleeding behind the wheel with saving his life.
"For him to live, period, is amazing," Gruett said. "If that person had assumed that [it] was just another drunk guy passed out on the side of the road with his car parked funny, he'd be dead."
A fund-raising page at https://www.gofundme.com/2g2ukz8 has been started to assist Gryskiewicz in his recovery.
Dulono's, a staple of the Lyn-Lake neighborhood for its pizza and 2-for-1 beer specials, stays open until 3 a.m. daily.
Liz Sawyer • 612-673-4648
