Police ID suspect vehicle in Fort Worth shooting of 6 victims; toddler critically injured
Police have identified a vehicle they believe was involved in Wednesday’s drive-by shooting at a west Fort Worth apartment complex, officials said.
Fort Worth Police Department spokesperson Bradley Perez told the Star-Telegram on Friday that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing, but investigators have identified a suspect vehicle.
The current condition of the shooting victims is unknown, but Perez said a 3-year-old girl was the most critically injured.
The toddler was one of six young people injured outside the Miramar Apartments and Townhomes at 3064 Las Vegas Trail, where police have said one or more shooters fired from a vehicle.
The 3-year-old child’s father told KXAS-TV on Thursday that his daughter was still in the hospital, and that doctors had removed one of her kidneys.
Another victim, a 14-year-old, told KXAS that a bullet had grazed his right leg, but he was OK. The teen declined to go to the hospital for treatment.
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Three other victims were transported to Cook Children’s Medical Center after the shooting and a 19-year-old was taken to a local hospital.
According to MedStar, one patient was in critical condition, one in serious condition and three were in good condition with more minor injuries when they were transported by ambulance.
A few hours before the shooting, a cashier at a nearby Kroger store on Camp Bowie West Boulevard was stabbed and critically injured during a robbery attempt. A suspect, 37-year-old Michael Pitts, was arrested and faces an aggravated robbery charge. Police have said they don’t believe the shooting and the stabbing incident were connected.
“That community has been traumatized,” said Kyev Tatum, pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church and president of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas.
According to Tatum, the bloodshed in the Las Vegas Trail area is just another example of the violence that continues to plague Black communities across the city.
“Yet we don’t have a comprehensive strategy as a city to address the root causes,” Tatum told the Star-Telegram in a phone interview.
Tatum sees those root causes as poverty, discrimination, racism and “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” to quote President George W. Bush.
A Fort Worth Police Department report shows violent crime in the area was down for the period of January through March of this year compared with the same time frame in 2023 and 2022. Ninety-seven crimes against persons, such as assaults and sex offenses, were reported this year, compared with 132 in each of the prior years.
City Councilmember Michael Crain, whose district includes the Las Vegas Trail area, vowed to do everything he can to improve public safety and quality of life for the residents.
“Last night’s events were a tragedy and not in line with the overall trend of crime reduction in the area,” he said in a statement after the shooting.
Tatum said more work is needed, not just on Las Vegas Trail but in Black communities throughout the city. According to Tatum, city leaders tend to have a purely transactional relationship with the Black community.
“It’s never relational,” he said.
Tatum said he wants to see that change, and he believes the key to lasting reform in Black communities must start in Black churches.
Tatum envisions a group of Black churches who understand the needs in their communities working closely with city leaders in a bottom-up approach to tackle the underlying causes of violence.
Fort Worth police recently presented a proposal with several new initiatives to increase public safety in the West 7th entertainment district in response to three shootings over the past eight months. Yet, according to Tatum, nothing substantial is being done to curb ongoing violence in the Black low-income areas of the city.
“We don’t want crime in our community more than anyone else does,” he said.
Tatum said he’s doing what he can to make a difference. He’s praying, and he’s organizing events for Fort Worth youth.
One of those events, the second annual Pitch, Hit and Run Fun Over Guns will be held at noon Saturday in Gateway Park at 1701 N. Beach St.
