Members of the United States Marshals’ North Texas Fugitive Task Force arrested an 18-year-old on Monday for allegedly shooting a Dallas man in the parking lot of a Grand Prairie movie theater last week.
Grand Prairie police officers responded to a shooting call in the 200 block of West Westchester Parkway, on Tuesday, July 12, at about 1:30 a.m. Responding officers found a man with a gunshot wound at the scene. The victim, identified as Walter Umukoro, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Umukoro, whose family moved from Nigeria to Dallas when he was 5 years old in 2006, had gone to the movie theater with his girlfriend, according to FOX 4 News.
“He said he was going out,” Francis Umukoro, the victim’s father, told Fox 4. “We don’t know where he goes to. He’s a young man. So, I said ‘Okay,’ but the mom said, ‘Don’t go.’”
Police said the younger Umukoro got into a fight with another person in the movie theater’s parking lot. The other individual, whom police believe to be 18-year-old Cornelius Jackson, allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Umukoro.
“He doesn’t fight, like on the streets,” Francis said of his son. “So, I don’t know what happened.”
“During the altercation, I’m very sure my son actually didn’t have any kind of threat like that guy is going to do anything like that to him,” the father continued. “I believe the other fellow took it to another level and just shot my son dead.”
Prior to his death, Walter Umukoro took classes at Cedar Valley College before he began working as an armed security guard. Francis Umukoro and Rita Umukoro, the victim’s mother, told FOX 4 that their son wanted to be a pharmacy tech.
The mother added that her son cared about others and loved helping them. Other members of the victim’s family revealed that he wanted to be a boxer.
Jackson has been charged with murder and is being held at the Grand Prairie Detention Center on a $500,000 bond. It is not clear whether he has a lawyer.
For more Dallas crime-related news, see how Councilmember Chad West of District 1 was named The Dallas Express’ Crime Boss of the Month for April 2022.
