Two people were injured in a shooting early Tuesday morning near a homeless encampment in Fort Worth.
Around 4:45 a.m., police responded to a report that a man and woman had been shot near East Vickery Road and South Riverside Drive. When officers arrived, they found two people with gunshot wounds.
Police say they believe the shooting was triggered by a “disturbance of unknown origin” between several of the people who live in the homeless campsite nearby, per Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The male shooting victim was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. The female shooting victim sustained minor injuries and received treatment at the scene.
The scene was cleared by 9 a.m. Officers from the Fort Worth Police Department and members of the SWAT team are still actively looking for the suspect. Police believe the shooter may be barricaded in a hidden location nearby.
Police have not released a description of the shooter.
An ongoing study by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association indicates that crime is much less prevalent in downtown Fort Worth, which is patrolled by specialized neighborhood police units and private security guards, than in neighboring Downtown Dallas.
According to the City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard, there have been 3,574 aggravated assaults committed in Dallas this year as of August 6.
The Dallas Police Department has faced staffing issues, resulting in lower response times and increasing difficulty fighting crime.
Only around 3,000 officers are currently in the field, despite a prior City analysis advising that a force of roughly 4,000 is needed to properly police a jurisdiction the size of Dallas.
Meanwhile, the Dallas City Council approved a budget for DPD of only $654 million this fiscal year, which is considerably less taxpayer money allocated towards public safety than in other high-crime cities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.