More details are emerging about a workplace shooting last week in Lewisville that resulted in a woman’s death.
Travis Merrill, 51, was arrested Thursday moments after allegedly shooting his coworker, Tamhara Collazo, at her desk at Allegiance Trucks in the 1800 block of Lakeway Drive. The business shares a parking lot with the temporary headquarters of the Lewisville Police Department, so officers were nearby and able to respond quickly to the shooting incident.
According to a police affidavit, Merrill told investigators that “he was obsessed with Collazo and began getting ever increasingly angry by her taking what he considered to be unauthorized long breaks during work hours, as well as not paying attention to him.” He gave police a list of dates detailing the time Collazo spent on breaks each day.
Collazo reportedly told Merrill to stop watching her on her breaks and spoke to HR about Merrill’s apparent obsession with her. HR required Merrill to speak with a counselor over the phone about his behavior before he was allowed to return to work.
Merrill said that Collazo intentionally avoided him when he returned to the office, which only made him feel angrier, so he began buying guns and practicing with them at home. He stated that his coworkers viewed him as “a psychopath.”
On October 17, he followed Collazo to the parking lot where she usually took her lunch break in her car. He watched her sit in her car and then he went to his vehicle to retrieve two guns.
When Collazo returned to the office building after lunch, at around 11:30 a.m., Merrill allegedly followed her inside to her cubicle and “ambushed her, firing the gun several times,” according to the affidavit. More than two dozen employees witnessed the shooting.
Collazo was hit five times, suffering two wounds to her right arm, two to her chest, and one to her leg, The Dallas Morning News reported. Responding officers attempted life-saving measures as soon as they arrived, but Collazo later died at the hospital.
Merrill told investigators that Collazo “had caused him pain, and he wanted her to feel pain, so he intentionally planned to shoot her at work with everyone there,” according to the affidavit.
Merrill is currently held in the Denton County Jail on the charge of murder with bail set at $10 million.
Allegiance Trucks issued a statement following the tragic shooting.
“The company is providing support to the victim’s family and the rest of our employees who, thankfully, were unharmed, and we have closed our Lewisville office indefinitely. We are also working closely with law enforcement during their ongoing investigation. We ask for the community’s support as our company has unfortunately joined the growing national community of workplaces affected by gun violence,” the statement read.
In nearby Dallas, 151 murders have been reported thus far this year, according to the City of Dallas Crime Analytics dashboard. Violent crime continues to be a problem in Dallas, where police efforts to combat crime have been hampered by a shortage of officers and a limited budget. Currently, Dallas fields only about 3,000 sworn officers, despite a City analysis that recommended about 4,000 for a city of its size.
The Dallas Police Department’s budget was increased by about 10% for the fiscal year 2024-2025, but the $719 million figure is still far less than the budgets of other high-crime jurisdictions such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
