Police have made an arrest in the murder of a man during an apparent burglary in South Dallas last weekend. A second suspect reportedly still remains at large.
Kayla Griffin, 28, was taken into custody in Bloomfield, New Mexico, on Tuesday after an arrest warrant out of Dallas bore fruit due to its mention of a unique “Spook” tattoo on the side of her face.
Griffin already had a criminal record with multiple felony charges in her home state of North Carolina.
She now faces a capital murder charge and perhaps more after the shooting in the 900 block of Medalist Drive left one dead.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Mario Gordon, a newcomer to Dallas from Georgia, went outside on the morning of September 30 to investigate why his dog was barking. He discovered a traumatized woman wearing only a t-shirt and bleeding from her head.
After first responders determined which home the woman had come from, they discovered two males tied up — one uninjured and the other fatally shot.
The deceased male victim was identified as 30-year-old Deleon Williams.
According to what the uninjured male victim told police, Williams had been renting a room to “Jackie,” an alias allegedly used by Griffin. The relationship between the two surviving victims and Williams is unclear.
On the day of the incident, Griffin and an unidentified man allegedly robbed Williams and the other two victims at gunpoint.
The suspects used electrical cords to bind the hands of the three occupants and covered Williams’ mouth with packing tape, the male victim told police. After taking their victims’ cellphones, the suspects made the uninjured man give them his bank PIN and car keys, he said.
At that point, the male suspect allegedly shot at the three victims, dealing a fatal blow to Williams, wounding the woman, and narrowly missing the man. The woman was treated for non-life-threatening wounds.
Dallas police are still investigating the incident and have not released any further information. They have also not made any mention of the male suspect or whether they have any leads as to his whereabouts.
Williams’ murder is one of 195 criminal homicides logged in Dallas since the start of the year, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. This is a 9.6% increase year over year.
In Council Member Zarin Gracey’s District 3, where this incident occurred, simple assaults, motor vehicle thefts, burglaries, and drug offenses have also been on the rise. Meanwhile, the Dallas Police Department has been struggling to get a handle on crime amid a longstanding shortage of officers.
Despite a City report previously indicating that a force of 4,000 officers is needed to adequately police Dallas, fewer than 3,200 officers are currently in service.
Indeed, an overwhelming 91.5% of Dallas residents reported in July that they didn’t think there were enough officers to keep the city safe, as indicated by polling by The Dallas Express.
Downtown Dallas has borne the brunt of this shortage, with crime rates regularly surpassing those seen in other downtown areas like that of neighboring Fort Worth. The latter is patrolled by a dedicated special police unit and private security guards.