Police in Haltom City are asking for the public’s help to identify a suspect in a possible road rage shooting.
The incident occurred early Sunday between 4:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. on East Belknap Road just east of Layton, according to police. A passenger in a sedan fired a weapon at a second vehicle, striking a 16-year-old boy in the second car. The boy is reported to be in critical condition at a local hospital.
Investigators said they believe the incident was isolated, and there is no known connection between the victim and the shooter.
The police have little information to go on in their search for the suspect. The suspect was one of four Hispanic men riding in a sedan, but police have no description of the suspect or the vehicle he was riding in.
Detectives with the Haltom City Police Department are requesting video footage from any cameras near the scene of the shooting, including along Belknap from Bernice Street through the light at Layton. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the police department at 817-222-7000 or email Det. Key at [email protected]. His direct number is 817-222-7034.
In 2018, Claudia Sanchez, a 33-year-old Haltom City woman and single mother of three children, was killed when the driver of the vehicle she was riding in engaged in a road rage altercation with the occupants of another vehicle. A passenger in the second vehicle fired a gun, striking Sanchez in the head, Fox 4 KDFW reported.
In 2023, the passenger who fired the gun, 30-year-old Lyneisha McCuin, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to Fox 4.
In nearby Dallas, aggravated assaults and homicides are a continuing problem. The City has logged 4,327 aggravated assaults and 139 murders so far this year, according to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard. The Dallas Police Department’s efforts to fight crime have been hindered by a chronic shortage of police officers and a relatively limited budget.
The department fields only around 3,000 officers, despite a City analysis that advised that about 4,000 are needed to adequately patrol the jurisdiction. For this fiscal year, City leaders allocated a budget of only $654 million to the police department, far less than the budgets of other high-crime cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City.