Kennedale police arrested a 17-year-old girl early Wednesday morning after she fired shots at her grandmother, younger brother, and police officers.
Police responded to an apartment complex in the 100 block of N. Joplin Road after the suspect, Jazlyn Renfro, called 911, threatening to shoot someone inside her apartment.
When law enforcement arrived, they heard a disturbance from inside the apartment and saw the teen suspect’s grandmother and 2-year-old brother outside on the apartment balcony. Police asked the older woman to step outside with the toddler.
“We were hoping we were just going to have the grandmother come out with the toddler and have a conversation and find out what’s going on, and, of course, it took a totally different turn,” Kennedale Police Chief Mike Holguin said, per Fox 4 KDFW.
As the grandmother, holding the toddler, attempted to exit the apartment through the doorway at the bottom of a stairwell, the teen allegedly opened fire with a shotgun, striking her grandmother in the back. The door swung open, and officers saw the wounded woman, still holding the child, slumped over on the floor, NBC 5 DFW reported.
Officers quickly took action, removing the woman and child from the line of fire as the teen continued shooting the weapon. Police returned fire, but no one else was injured in the exchange.
Renfro surrendered shortly thereafter of her own volition and was taken into police custody.
“Based on the preliminary information gathered at the scene, there is no doubt that the officers placed themselves in harm’s way to protect an innocent woman and a child while taking fire from the suspect who was shooting at them from the top of a stairwell. Without the officers’ swift and courageous actions, we may have had additional gunshot victims or a homicide. These officers truly acted heroically,” Holguin said, according to Fox 4.
The grandmother was transported to a local hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, per NBC 5.
Renfro is facing multiple charges, including attempted capital murder, two counts of aggravated assault on a family member with a weapon, and three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer with a weapon.
Kennedale is located about 12 miles southeast of Downtown Fort Worth.
In nearby Dallas, 1,219 incidents of aggravated assault against a family member have been reported so far this year, accounting for more than 28% of all aggravated assaults in the jurisdiction, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard.
Dallas police have been hampered in their efforts to fight crime by a chronic shortage of police officers, as well as a budget that is far below that of other high-crime cities.
This shortfall is evidenced by the disparity in the crime rate between Downtown Dallas and Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled by dedicated police units and private security guards. The crime rate in Downtown Dallas is consistently much higher than in Fort Worth, according to monthly reports by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association.