Newly released video footage of a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth from earlier this month shows a 9-year-old boy dodging bullets inside his own home.
Bullets can be seen tearing through Mary Jane Gonzales’ apartment off Las Vegas Trail as her son, Errol, ducks behind the arm of the living room couch.
“I was just glad that I didn’t get hit, but I felt bad for those kids who got hit,” Errol told Fox 4 KDFW. “I felt terrorized in those moments.”
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, six children were hit by gunfire while playing outside Miramar Apartments on May 1. They sustained injuries of varying degrees of severity. For instance, a 14-year-old’s leg was just grazed and did not require medical care, whereas a 3-year-old named Me’chelle was shot in the liver and right kidney. She remains in critical condition after losing her kidney but is no longer in a coma.
Gonzales, a medical assistant, had heard her neighbors’ screams and went downstairs to help.
“I was the first one to start helping everybody, asking for towels, for anything to help put pressure on their wounds,” she told Fox 4.
She later saw the terrifying surveillance footage of her living room during the attack, telling reporters, “My heart fell through my stomach.”
The Fort Worth Police Department is still investigating the May 1 incident, and there have been no updates since the suspects’ vehicle, a red Kia Soul, was identified.
A surveillance camera captured the Soul moving past the apartment complex while the backseat passenger appeared to spray gunfire at those outside.
Anyone with information about the drive-by is urged to call Fort Worth Police Department detectives at 817-392-4222.
The shooting comes even as Fort Worth crime statistics show a decline in violent crime, per police data.
Similarly, a big discrepancy in crime reports exists between Downtown Dallas and the downtown area of Fort Worth, as demonstrated by monthly analyses by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association. While the Dallas Police Department has been laboring under a significant staffing shortage, Fort Worth uses a specialized neighborhood police force and private security guards to patrol its city center. The Stockyards will soon get a similar treatment, as covered by The Dallas Express.
Meanwhile, DPD appears to be struggling to overcome its deficit of around 1,000 officers. Only around 3,000 are fielded despite a City report recommending closer to 4,000. City officials only budgeted the department $654 million this fiscal year, significantly less taxpayer money than other high-crime cities allocated to their police.