A man is in the hospital with serious injuries following a road rage shooting in Dallas late Tuesday evening.
Two women in a white sedan were reportedly following a man in a black SUV on LBJ Freeway at around 10:50 p.m. when one of the women, Latuita Holland, began firing a gun at the man’s SUV.
At least one of the bullets hit the back window of the man’s SUV, shattering it.
The man exited Lancaster Road in the Oak Cliff area, where the women followed. The man stopped his SUV on the exit ramp and exited his vehicle. Holland, age 44, reportedly shot him as he walked toward her vehicle.
The man was not carrying a weapon.
The victim, who has not been identified, was transported to the hospital and was listed in critical condition. Both women stayed at the scene to speak with police officers about the incident.
Holland was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Police have interviewed an unidentified eyewitness to the incident and are working to determine if the shooting was an act of self-defense. Police have not stated what may have instigated the altercation between the drivers.
Road rage incidents have become all too common in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
On September 15, a 16-year-old boy was shot in Haltom City in a reported road rage incident, leaving the teen in critical condition, as DX reported.
An off-duty Fort Worth police officer was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for his involvement in an alleged road rage shooting on September 3.
In August, a 2-year-old girl was critically injured when a man on a motorcycle fired shots at her family’s vehicle during another alleged road rage incident in East Dallas.
So far this year, 4,616 aggravated assaults have been reported in Dallas, though it is unclear how many of those may be related to road rage incidents.
Dallas’s approved $5.3 billion budget for the fiscal year 2024-2025, which began in October, includes an increase in funding for the Dallas Police Department. The DPD’s budget rose from $657 million to $719 million, representing a nearly 10% boost. However, despite being woefully short, the goal is to add only 2% more sworn officers.
DPD has been hindered in its efforts to manage crime in the City because of a chronic shortage of police officers and a budget that is far below other high-crime jurisdictions. The current number of sworn officers in the DPD is roughly 3,000, which falls short of the City’s 2015 recommendation of 4,000 officers. This shortage of police officers contributes to longer response times for emergency calls, as previously reported by DX.