A Fort Worth man was arrested Wednesday after a dead dog and shell casings were found in the community garden at a church.
Police responded to two calls at All Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist on the 1900 block of Sandy Lane. The first call was about a dead dog found in the garden that was allegedly “cut open,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
However, police returned to the scene around 4:30 p.m. police because someone was inside the church with a shotgun, The Dallas Morning News reported.
When officers arrived, they found 27-year-old Roman Collins. A search of Collins and his vehicle produced a shotgun, a large knife, a rifle, a handgun, and several loaded magazines.
A 911 caller claimed that Collins had made “threatening statements about killing people.”
Collins was placed under arrest and taken to Fort Worth City Jail before being transported to Tarrant County Jail. He was charged with one count of terroristic threat, one count of cruelty to a non-livestock animal, and two weapon law violations, according to jail records. He is currently being held on a $200,000 bond.
The investigation was led by the Fort Worth Police Department’s homeland security unit with assistance from the Fort Worth Fire Department’s arson-bomb unit. Collins’ house was later searched by SWAT and the FBI, according to the DMN.
Such offenses are not all that uncommon in nearby Dallas, where there have been 1,583 reported weapon law offenses and 160 murders committed as of August 25, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime overview dashboard. Murders are up by almost 5% over last year.
The Dallas Police Department has been short-staffed for years. It presently maintains a force of around 3,100 officers. A City report advises that a city the size of Dallas should have about three officers for every 1,000 residents, putting an ideal staffing level at roughly 4,000 officers.
The shortage has been evident in Downtown Dallas, which routinely sees significantly more crime than Fort Worth’s downtown area, where a dedicated unit works alongside private security guards.