Violent crime continues to rise unabated in Dallas City Councilman Adam Bazaldua’s District 7, with assaults and murders ticking upward last month.
Bazaldua, a repeated runner-up for Crime Boss of the Month, has seen violent crime spike several times throughout 2022 but, along with his fellow council members, has seemingly not done anything to get a handle on the situation.
According to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard, assault offenses climbed 12.5% year-over-year for the month of December, with hikes in almost every subcategory.
Aggravated assaults in particular shot up by 44 reported incidents, clocking a total of 110 for the month, more than any other district in Dallas.
Making matters worse for the district’s residents, the number of murders doubled year-over-year in December, hitting four and nabbing 30.7% of the city’s 13 reported murders that month, more than any other district.
Four people lost their lives to violence in District 7 in December, including 49-year-old Hector Antonio Ruvalcaba, who was found shot to death in his car the day after Christmas, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
Da’Varcia Bernard Forney, 19, was also killed in Bazaldua’s district on December 14. Police found the young man shot inside a house in the 4600 block of Spring Garden Avenue. He died at the scene.
Then there was the shooting covered by The Dallas Express that occurred on December 9, which left one young man dead and another with a bullet in the leg. After being transported to a hospital, McKambrey Perkins, 19, succumbed to his wounds.
Local pastor and community activist Ronald Wright expressed his frustration with violent crime in District 7 last month following a brazen shooting at a shopping center parking lot in Pleasant Grove. As reported by The Dallas Express, the incident sent six people to the hospital.
The investigation is still ongoing, and no suspects have been publicly identified.
“The police can’t do their job if we don’t open our mouth and say anything, especially here on this corner,” Wright told NBC 5.
He lamented that businesses at the shopping center allowed “suspicious characters” to patronize their stores, calling on the whole community to do more to push council members toward preventing such outbreaks of street violence.
“The community needs to wake up and hold our council members accountable, so we can hold our law enforcement accountable, but also hold our businesses accountable,” Wright said.
The Dallas Express reached out to Bazaldua’s office and asked what could account for the repeated spikes in assaults and murders but did not hear back by press time.
