56-year-old cafeteria worker identified as employee fatally shot on Fort Worth ISD campus

Harriet Ramos
·2 min read

The Fort Worth ISD elementary school worker who was fatally shot on campus Wednesday has been identified.

Yolanda Gibbs, 56, worked in the cafeteria at David K. Sellars Elementary School in Forest Hill for 30 years, her family told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV. Gibbs died Wednesday morning after being shot multiple times in the back parking lot of the school.

“She loved kids,” Gibbs’ daughter Christina Ware told WFAA. “What she did is who she was.”

Forest Hill police responded to the shooting at David K. Sellars Elementary School, located at 4200 Dorsey St., around 6:50 a.m. Investigators determined Gibbs was speaking to a person in a car in the school parking lot right before she was shot. They believe Gibbs knew the shooter, who fled in a silver Chevy Impala, according to a Forest Hill Police Department news release.

Police said they found the car abandoned in Fort Worth and were working to confirm the suspect’s identity and obtain an arrest warrant.

Ware declined to share details on how Gibbs knew the suspect due to concern for her own safety and to protect the ongoing police investigation, WFAA reported.

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“I’m angry, I’m bitter,” Ware told WFAA. “My mama didn’t deserve that.”

According to Ware, Gibbs was planning to retire this year but changed her mind, WFAA reported.

“She made sure everybody felt secure, loved,” Ware said.

In a statement released a short time after the shooting, the Fort Worth Independent School District described Gibbs as “a beloved staff member.”

“Our hearts go out to their family during this incredibly difficult time,” the statement said. “The staff member was dedicated to serving their campus and had a profound impact on students and the staff.”

Keisha Braziel, who has a son in the fourth grade at Sellars, told the Star-Telegram that Gibbs had a big personality and was always happy and energetic.

“She will leave a void because she was that outgoing personality you knew when you came into the cafeteria,” said Braziel, who is the school’s PTA president. “She was a constant at the school.”