While City Council Member Paula Blackmon’s District 9 is not often thought of as a crime hotspot like some of the other City Council districts, there were a number of violent crimes committed in the northeastern communities she represents.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Council Member Blackmon was recently named Crime Boss of the Month for the year-over-year increase in reported crimes in her district in April. Although the bulk of reported incidents were property crimes, violence still affected dozens of people last month.
“On April 6 … at about 9:40 p.m., Dallas police responded to a call for service in the 7700 block of Forest Lane. The preliminary investigation determined a man was shot by an unknown suspect in the 2400 block of Millmar Drive and was taken to a local hospital,” said Public Information Officer Michael Dennis of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) in an email to The Dallas Express.
Dennis noted that no suspect has been taken into custody for the crime.
Ten days later, two unknown suspects committed a murder in the 11000 block of Amanda Lane. Darwin Givans, 31, was sitting inside his vehicle when he was approached by two individuals who shot him. Dallas Fire-Rescue came to render medical existence, but Givans died at the scene, according to DPD’s crime blog.
The next day, “[o]fficers responded to San Juan Avenue/San Medina Avenue regarding an adult male assaulting another male with a weapon. The victim was transported to a hospital in unknown condition,” Dennis informed The Dallas Express.
According to City data pertaining to the incident, the victim was pistol-whipped with a gun.
A request for comment was sent to Council Member Blackmon’s office by The Dallas Express, asking what she is doing to get crime under control in her district, but no response was received by press time.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the city, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible to you. Dallas has more crime per capita than hotspots like Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, according to data from the FBI’s UCR database.
How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts. Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.