A domestic dispute in Garland on Tuesday morning led to the shooting deaths of two women and the arrest of a family member.
Police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Arts at Broadway Commons apartments off I-30 shortly after 8 a.m. and noticed that the door to the apartment had been forced open. They found two small children inside the front room of the apartment. As the officers moved in, they heard the sound of gunfire from the back bedroom.
The officers took cover and quickly removed the children to a place of safety while ordering commands to the shooter in the back of the apartment. A man, later identified as 35-year-old Broderick Earl Kennedy, exited the bedroom and surrendered himself to police.
Garland police found two women in the bedroom who had been shot. One of the victims, identified as 38-year-old Donillie Lashay Kennedy, the wife of Broderick Kennedy, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second woman, identified as 58-year-old Shirley Jean Phillips, the mother of Donillie, was transported to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
The children were released to the care of extended family members. The investigation into the double homicide is ongoing.
Broderick Kennedy was booked into the Garland Detention Center and charged with capital murder of multiple persons and violation of a protective order, The Dallas Morning News reported.
In nearby Dallas, domestic violence is an ongoing problem, with 9,908 family violence crimes reported so far this year as of September 17. The majority of the victims — 71.6% — are female, ranging in age from infants to 94 years of age, according to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard.
Dallas has been hindered in its crime-fighting efforts by a chronic shortage of police officers and a limited budget. The Dallas Police Department only fields about 3,000 officers, despite a City analysis that recommended about 4,000 were needed to serve a municipality of Dallas’ size. This year, DPD was allocated a budget of $654 million, far less than that of other high-crime cities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.