Late Saturday night, a shooting broke up a house party in Southeast Dallas, leaving one dead and three others injured.
Jahcoria Green, 16, was found dead at the scene while an 18-year-old man and two 16-year-olds were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, said Dallas police, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The incident happened around 11 p.m. on the 1600 block of Pompano Beach Drive, located in District 8, served by Council Member Tennell Atkins.
As The Dallas Express recently reported, this district saw the highest number of murders — 20 in total — in the first four months of the year. This has contributed to a year-over-year rise in the homicide rate of over 20% as of May, with more up-to-date and reliable information apparently unavailable due to an alleged ransomware attack that struck City servers.
While the Dallas Police Department has released no information about any potential suspects or the circumstances surrounding the shooting on July 8, it asks the public to contact Detective Theodore Gross at 214-671-3143 or [email protected] to report any information relevant to this case, according to the DMN.
A resident living near the home shared a video with NBC 5 DFW showing one of the injured victims coming to her door asking for help.
Melissa Vergara told NBC 5 that she hadn’t been home at the time of the shooting. Instead, she was alerted by her RING camera that someone was at the door of her residence and was shocked to discover that someone had been shot.
“I finally realized what was happening then I had my phone live, he was like crying desperate, laying there bleeding at my doorstop and then you see the other camera. You have people fleeing taking off in their cars running down the street, I’m like ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’” Vergara recounted.
Gun violence has been in the national headlines lately, with 17 mass shootings occurring over the Fourth of July weekend, including in Fort Worth.
Violent crime continues to plague Dallas, where someone in the downtown area is four times more likely to be a victim of assault than in downtown Fort Worth, which is policed by its own localized unit and private security guards.
DPD falls short of the City’s target is 4,000 officers by around 900, according to a City document. This has an adverse impact on the police’s ability to reduce crime and respond to high-priority calls, as voiced by Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata.
“It’s going to be a very long time before we ever catch up to where we need to be or where we should be as far as manpower,” Mata said, according to the Dallas Observer.
