A man charged in a double murder that took place in Deep Ellum in March faces allegations that he committed another violent act just days later.
Tommy Spell is accused of shooting a man at a car wash with a semiautomatic rifle. The shooting incident occurred 12 days after Spell allegedly shot into a crowd of people at a nightclub, killing two.
The car wash shooting occurred on Forest Lane in the middle of the afternoon. Two bullets nearly hit a second man at the car wash during the event. The bullets struck the man’s vehicle.
Spell was arrested just a short time after.
His original charge comes from a shooting on March 15.
At about 1:20 a.m., Dallas police were called to Deep Ellum for a shooting at the 2800 block of Elm Street.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found two people had been shot.
Police identified the victims as 37-year-old Rickey Gossett and 30-year-old Danielle Jones. Both were pronounced dead.
Wearing a mask, Spell had allegedly walked up to Bitter End, a nightclub in Deep Ellum, and opened fire. Spell was reportedly targeting Gossett, according to police. A stray bullet went inside the building and hit Jones. She was a single mom in town for spring break.
A third bystander was injured in the shooting after being hit by a bullet fragment, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Spell is being held in the Dallas County Jail on a $1.6 million bond. He was already in jail when police linked him to the Deep Ellum murders.
Dallas continues to struggle with a high homicide rate. As of May 1 — the most recent reliable data made public due to the alleged ransomware attack against the City — the murder rate was up more than 20% when compared to the previous year.
In addition, the City of Dallas is well below its desired number of police officers. Currently, the City employs roughly 3,100 officers, and Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata told the Dallas Observer in January that the department is “400-500 officers short.”
Neighborhoods like Deep Ellum benefit from organizations like the Deep Ellum Foundation, which “hires up to 25 off-duty officers to patrol the district on [Deep Ellum’s] busiest nights and weekends” and works in conjunction with the Dallas Police Department. However, the number of officers the organization can provide is limited, and other areas like downtown Dallas do not have similar organizations.
