The Dallas Police Department (DPD) recently shared with The Dallas Express details of some of the violent crimes that occurred last month in City Councilman Adam Bazaldua’s district.
District 7 is largely located south of Interstate 30, running across much of South Dallas (including Fair Park). Its eastern flank ends at the boundary between Dallas and Mesquite, before Interstate 635.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, this region had the most reported instances of violent crime out of all 14 city districts in January, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.
The vast majority of these crimes go uncovered by local media, but The Dallas Express is intent on spotlighting the severity of criminal activity in the city and its impact on Dallas residents.
On January 6, for instance, a man was shot in the back in an apartment complex parking lot at 2410 Robert B. Cullum Blvd. He and another individual had apparently made arrangements to sell cologne to the suspects, according to DPD.
Upon their arrival, as the victim and his associate exited their vehicle, at least two unknown suspects allegedly began shooting, hitting the victim at least once. The two would-be cologne vendors managed to leave the scene. The victim was taken to a local hospital and received medical attention.
The next day, a violent carjacking occurred in the parking lot of the Stay Express Inn in the 8300 block of East R. L. Thornton Freeway. Four unknown suspects allegedly pummeled a man — one of them pistol-whipping him — before taking his vehicle and fleeing the scene. The investigation is currently ongoing, DPD told The Dallas Express.
On January 8, at around 1:30 a.m., police found a man who had been severely beaten lying in the center median of the road outside CJ’s Billiards and Sports Bar on Military Parkway. A witness told DPD they had seen an unknown suspect beat the victim and steal his belongings, leaving the man seriously injured in the street.
Bazaldua’s district is on track to have the most reported instances of violent crime in February, too, clocking 88 incidents so far as of Tuesday, according to City data.
A request for comment was sent to Councilman Bazaldua’s office regarding the violent crime in his district, but no response was received by press time.
The Dallas Express, The People’s Paper, believes that important information about the city, such as crime rates and trends, should be easily accessible to you. Dallas has more crime per capita than hotspots like Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, according to data from the FBI’s UCR database.
How did your area stack up on crime? Check out our interactive Crime Map to compare all Dallas City Council Districts. Curious how we got our numbers? Check out our methodology page here.
For more Dallas crime-related news, see how violent crime spiked YOY in Adam Bazaldua’s District 7.