John Jefferson
Inset: Celebrity chef Tobias Dorzon with Usher (Instagram). Background: Surveillance footage showing the Tobias Dorzon shooting (WTTG/YouTube).
An award-winning “Chef of the Year” from Maryland who has appeared on the Food Network and regularly cooks for celebrities and athletes is recovering from a shooting ambush that left him and his girlfriend hospitalized last week, with the entire assault being caught on camera.
“This incident shook us,” wrote ex-NFL star and chef Tobias Dorzon on Saturday in a statement posted to the Instagram pages for his two Hyattsville restaurants, Huncho House and 1123 By Chef Tobias. “I’m incredibly grateful to be on the road to recovery,” he said.
Dorzon — a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans running back who has appeared on the Food Network programs “Chopped,” “Tournament of Champions” and “Guy’s Grocery Games” — was returning home from dinner on Tuesday night, Nov. 5, when five armed attackers set upon him and his girlfriend, according to Hyattsville Police.
“Please don’t kill me, bro! Please don’t kill me!” Dorzon can be heard saying on surveillance video after the group starts shooting at him.
The footage, which was first obtained by TMZ and Fox affiliate WTTG, shows the group setting upon Dorzon and his girlfriend in the 2500 block of Kirkwood Place in Hyattsville — a Washington, D.C., suburb — at around 10:15 p.m., the Hyattsville Police Department reports.
Surveillance cameras in the area caught the alleged assailants arriving and leaving in a white SUV with a sunroof and an unknown tag. The suspects were wearing jackets and hoods, with three of them carrying semiautomatic handguns and a fourth allegedly brandishing a short rifle “of some sort,” per HPD Chief Jarod J. Towers.
“This is barbarous activity and conduct by violent criminals,” Towers told reporters at a press conference last week.
“I want to see those responsible for this heinous act held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” added Prince George’s County Councilmember Wanika Fisher, who represents the area where the shooting occurred, in a statement.
“Chef Dorzon owns two amazing restaurants in Hyattsville, is a valued member of the District 2 community, and my dear friend,” Fisher said. “Such a horrible act couldn’t have happened to a better person. I am sending my deepest sympathies to him and the second victim, as well as their families and friends, and I wish them both a speedy recovery. We have no place for this kind of senseless violence in our district or our county.”
Dorzon sent out statements on his personal Instagram account over the weekend, in addition to his restaurant pages, updating everyone on his condition and future in wake of the shooting.
“I’m still here,” he wrote in a Nov. 9 post. “See y’all soon.”
Speaking through the Huncho House and 1123 By Chef Tobias pages, Dorzon wrote: “My team is stronger than ever, and our doors remain open to serve you the food we love creating. If you’re wondering how to support, come by, make a reservation, and enjoy a meal with us. Your support means the world to me.”
Recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Chef of the Year by the Restaurant Association of Maryland, Dorzon has been a local DMV treasure for both foodies and famous people, with his Instagram page being littered with celeb and athlete sightings.
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“Make sure you tell the people you love that you love them,” he wrote on X in April. “This world is not forever.”
Hyattsville police were still looking for Dorzon’s alleged shooters as of Sunday, according to reports.
Attempts by Law&Crime to reach local officials for comment have been unsuccessful.
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