A bar in Deep Ellum is being sued by the family of a woman who was killed during a shooting at the bar last month.
Danielle Maxine Jones, 30, was with a group of her friends at the Bitter End bar last month when a shooting occurred. Jones was shot to death during the shooting that occurred on March 15.
Rickey Gossett, 37, was also killed during the shooting, and another person was left injured.
Jones’ family is now suing the bar, and the lawsuit alleges that the bar had lax security measures “despite being aware that violent crimes often occur in Deep Ellum,” per Fox 4 News. Nuru Witherspoon, the family’s attorney, said that the bar did not have adequate security measures in place, which contributed to Jones’ death.
“This shooter had engaged the individuals at the door, that were checking ID. They didn’t have security. They just had individuals checking ID. Those individuals probably had an opportunity to call police. Had the police been called, this guy would’ve been arrested or asked not to trespass,” said Witherspoon, per Fox 4 News.
The lawsuit says it was more likely that “dangerous individuals might come upon the property due to inadequate supervision, monitoring, and patrolling of the premises” at Bitter End, per WFAA.
Witherspoon said that everyone who lives or visits Dallas enters Deep Ellum at some point, and the bar should have been a safer environment.
“Everyone who lives in Dallas or comes to visit Dallas at some point or time is going to go into Deep Ellum. Every single weekend, there’s thousands of people that go into Deep Ellum. On the day Ms. Jones was killed at the Bitter End, it wasn’t as safe as it should have or as safe as it could have been,” Witherspoon said, per Fox 4 News.
A motive for the shooting has not been released by officials, and there have not been any arrests made related to the shooting.
The Dallas Express previously reported on a December 31 shooting that left two injured and occurred in Deep Ellum. District 2, led by Council Member Jesse Moreno, experienced extensive crime in 2023. There have been nine homicides in the district in 2023, indicating no change from this time last year, according to the Dallas crime statistics dashboard.
Following the high crime year of 2022, crime has continued to be an issue in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in 2023. Since the start of 2023, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter is up roughly 17.44%, according to the Dallas Police Department crime statistics dashboard.