Four people shot in Deep Ellum incident due to lack of police

Four people were shot in a nighttime incident on June 9 in Deep Ellum.

Police responded to a call about a shooting at North Crowdus Street and Elm Street, where they found four men, ages 17, 26, 28 and 35, injured by gunfire. The incident occurred in Council Member Adam Bazaldua’s 7th District.

“The 17-year-old was in critical condition; the other three men are in stable condition,” said Michael Dennis, a Dallas police spokesman. The Dallas Express“There were no arrests in this case. The investigation is ongoing.”

A video obtained by NBC 5 DFW shows several victims lying next to the road being treated by paramedics.

By 10 o’clock @NBCDFW: A video from witnesses shows the moments after four people were shot in Deep Ellum around 3 a.m., leaving a 17-year-old in critical condition.

Anti-gun violence advocates say more needs to be done to protect youth – and are calling for a stronger police presence in Deep Ellum. pic.twitter.com/AlxY4f2wf7

— Keenan Willard (@KeenanNBC5) June 10, 2024

“We were in Deep Ellum a while ago for the first time in ages. The same guy followed us everywhere and tried to fight us twice for no reason. I’ve noticed a significant change in the nature of the people in the area,” X-user @1031ent commented to the video article.

The DPD has faced a number of problems that have hampered its crime-fighting efforts. The agency had a budget of only $654 million this fiscal year, significantly less than other high-crime cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. In addition, the agency currently has only about 3,000 officers on the force, even though a city report indicated that about 4,000 were needed to adequately police a city the size of Dallas.

The lack of staff has affected police response times, as already The Dallas Express.

“We can no longer allow incidents like this to happen in our city,” Antong Lucky of Urban Specialists, a local group dedicated to violence prevention, told NBC 5. “I wish we would put more effort into enforcing the laws in the places where we gather to have fun and hang out.”

With crime rising in the Deep Ellum area, city leaders and the Deep Ellum Foundation have set out to make the area safer for everyone through a crime-fighting strategy. The Dallas Express.

The strategy includes additional surveillance cameras, better lighting around parking lots and the deployment of nearly 24 off-duty police officers to patrol the neighborhood on busy nights and weekends.

DPD set up a separate unit for the Deep Ellum area in 2022 after crime increased there. The Dallas Express reported.

Downtown Fort Worth also has a special police unit and private security forces. Crime in this area is regularly much lower than in downtown Dallas.

Across Dallas, there have been 2,510 aggravated assaults citywide so far this year, with most crimes occurring in April and May (see the City of Dallas Crime Analysis Dashboard).

According to the dashboard, 93 murders have been reported this year through June 9. Dallas has been recording between 16 and 19 murders per month, with six murders already reported this month.