A Fort Worth man is dead after being stabbed early Friday morning.
David Dewayne Christopher, 45, was stabbed in his apartment in Downtown Fort Worth around 2 a.m. following an argument, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Investigators believe that Christopher and the suspect were involved in a physical and verbal altercation outside of the apartment complex. The suspect reportedly left for a period of time, then returned and stabbed Christopher.
Police found Christopher in his apartment bathroom at 100 Harding St., according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. He had been stabbed at least once in the lower body and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect fled before police made it to the scene. The suspect’s name has not been released.
Nearby Dallas has seen its own share of stabbings this year.
In August, a student was stabbed at a Dallas ISD campus after an altercation in one of the school’s bathrooms, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
As of August 29, Dallas has seen 161 murders so far this year, per the City’s crime analytics dashboard.
Downtown Dallas, in particular, sees plenty of violent crime. The neighborhood stands in stark contrast with Fort Worth’s city center. According to monthly comparative crime studies conducted by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association, Downtown Dallas logs upwards of several times more criminal incidents than Fort Worth’s downtown area, which is patrolled by a special police unit and private security guards.
While the Dallas Police Department has been laboring under a significant staffing shortage, a specialized police unit and private security teams patrol Fort Worth’s city center. Although City leaders recommended a force of around 4,000 officers in a report looking at public safety needs by population, DPD fields only around 3,000 officers.
DPD also lacks funding compared to other high-crime jurisdictions. New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago leaders have allocated far higher sums to police than the Dallas City Council, which approved a DPD budget of just $654 million this fiscal year.