Roosevelt High School in Oak Cliff closed its doors Friday after two of its sophomore student-athletes were injured in a drive-by shooting about a mile from campus the evening before.
Dallas ISD issued notices on X and its website announcing the closure.
“Due to a credible threat, Roosevelt High School is closed Friday, April 26, 2024, as a precaution. We ask all students and staff to refrain from coming to campus, and more information will be provided when an update is available. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding,” the district said.
As Roosevelt High School coach Terrence Lowery told Fox 4 KDFW, he had been driving two football players home after practice when a vehicle pulled alongside his car near the Cedar Crest Golf Course. Someone inside that vehicle opened fire on them. While Lowery was uninjured, both students were shot. He drove back to the campus and called 911.
“The coach is a hero. He thought quickly. He got the kids back to safety, got himself back to safety. He communicated with the proper people,” said Keio Gamble, a concerned community member and activist, per Fox 4.
“The cops, DISD, they’re gonna handle it the way they need to handle it. But I just came because that’s a friend of mine, that’s a brother of mine, and I was just concerned,” he added.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Dallas Police Department, which is investigating the incident.
Police have not released a description of the suspect(s) or a possible motive for the shooting. However, DPD did report that the two students were in stable condition at Methodist Hospital, per WFAA. The student sitting in the back seat of the vehicle was reportedly shot in the neck, while the student in the front passenger seat was struck in the back of the arm and shoulder.
The metroplex has recently seen two other shootings involving local students, both of which occurred on campus.
Earlier this week, 18-year-old Etavion Barnes was shot several times at Bowie High School in Arlington, as reported by The Dallas Express. Police have charged 17-year-old suspected shooter Julian Howard, a fellow student, with murder.
The week before, violence broke out at Dallas ISD’s Wilmer-Hutchins High School, with 17-year-old Ja’kerian Rhodes-Ewing allegedly shooting another student in the upper thigh. As covered by The Dallas Express, the Dallas ISD community reacted to the incident with calls for district officials to protect its students. While Dallas ISD has instituted a clear backpack policy and set up metal detectors at the doors of its campuses, some Wilmer-Hutchins students called the enforcement of such measures lax.
Moreover, Dallas ISD has struggled to abide by the new state mandate to have an armed peace officer at each campus, with officials citing hiring and financial constraints. The district’s police department recently launched a recruitment campaign.
The recent drive-by shooting in East Oak Cliff occurred in Council Member Carolyn King Arnold’s District 4, which has seen a spike in homicides lately. As The Dallas Express reported, Arnold recently organized a public meeting to address the issue with the community.
According to data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard, District 4 had logged 13 criminal homicides as of April 25. This represents a year-over-year increase of 44.4%. The overwhelming majority of the 66 murders clocked citywide have been racial minorities.
While DPD currently fields around 3,000 officers, a City report recommended that roughly 4,000 are needed to ensure public safety. Relatedly, the Dallas City Council only allocated $654 million to police this fiscal year, significantly less than the spending levels in other high-crime cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.