Dallas police have asked for help from the public to find who killed a 19-year-old in Dallas in 1998.
The Dallas Police Department has drawn attention to several unsolved murders as part of its #ColdCaseTuesday initiative on social media. This week, DPD informed the public about the murder of Ron Carr, who was fatally shot inside his vehicle on April 7, 1998.
Investigators have asked anyone with information about the case or the two suspects seen fleeing the scene — two black males, one of whom dropped a jersey with “Hoard” and the number “33” on it — to contact Sergeant Otha Hampton at 214-671-3654 or by email at [email protected] and refer to case number 247151-G.
The fatal shooting occurred in the 2700 block of Toluca Avenue, which is in Council Member Carolyn King Arnold’s District 4.
Last week, DPD featured another cold case, this one occurring in Council Member Tennell Atkins’ District 8. The victim, 34-year-old Mondell Peterson, was fatally shot in the 4100 block of Wilshire Boulevard on March 1, 2016.
An unknown number of black males, ages 20-30 at the time, driving a champagne color 1999-2021 Toyota Camry have been identified as suspects in Peterson’s murder.
DPD has a Cold Case Squad, yet it is unknown exactly how many outstanding cases they are currently investigating. The Dallas Morning News has previously claimed that DPD has an annual clearance rate of roughly 50%.
Nevertheless, forensic genetic genealogy — a state-of-the-art technology that uses ancestry databases to find suspects’ relatives and help identify them — has shown considerable promise recently, as covered in The Dallas Express.
Recently, the technique was used to charge and convict Liborio Canales, 86, as the murderer of a 37-year-old named Barbara Fay Villarreal in her Garland home on November 7, 1986. Canales had been Villarreal’s brother-in-law, and investigators used her husband’s DNA to identify Canales as a murder suspect.
Last year, the murder rate in Dallas rose by 15% compared to the year prior, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. The overwhelming majority of murder victims have been and currently are black and Hispanic males. Of the 50 murders committed this year as of March 20, 47 were racial or ethnic minorities.
DPD has struggled to ensure public safety amid a longstanding officer shortage. Just 3,000 currently operate in the field despite a City analysis recommending a force of 4,000. This fiscal year, DPD has a budget of just $654 million after City leaders opted to spend significantly less on police than other high-crime jurisdictions, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
Although DPD has tried to adapt amid these difficulties, such as by instituting new reporting systems for certain crimes, criminal activity remains concentrated in some regions of the City.
For instance, the Metroplex Civic & Business Association routinely shows Downtown Dallas clocks more monthly crime than Fort Worth’s city center. Fort Worth patrols its downtown area with a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards.
