In west Fort Worth, horror strikes a proud community. Time to help Lake Como | Opinion

Fort Worth lives by guns, gun sales and gun shows, and sometimes they wind up in the wrong hands.

Families in the Lake Como neighborhood and across the city are grieving today, all because someone too reckless or too young was out late with a gun.

Lake Como’s tradition of a July 3 homecoming street party the night before the Como Day neighborhood Fourth of July parade goes back nearly 50 years. What began as a car and motorcycle rally has turned into a midnight gathering for hundreds, many with no connection to the close-knit Lake Como neighborhood.

Twice, city leaders have tried to divert the energy and crowds to a neighborhood street festival earlier that night. The most recent version, ComoFest, celebrated a community built around families and churches. It ended at 10 p.m. with a fireworks show.

But from videos and photos posted online, a diffferent crowd gathered later, this way beyond those in years past and much larger than a typical street party.

Trouble for the peaceful residents of the 100-year-old Lake Como neighborhood almost always involves someone from outside Como. Every July 3 and 4, the children and grandchildren of Como come home. But friends and strangers join in, making the event too much of a citywide bash.

In 1988, after neighborhood complaints about the noise and nuisance, police sent 140 officers to crack down and shut down the entire gathering.

But the resulting tension had exactly the opposite outcome. It made the event worse.

The crowd rebelled against the heavy-handed policing, rocking patrol cars, breaking out one unit’s windows and throwing rocks and bottles at unsuspecting motorists’ cars passing on Horne Street. Fifteen people were arrested.

In the following years, police and neighborhood leaders tried a variety of safety plans, including having a security force of Como residents.

In 2021, a strong and united community relaunched the ComoFest neighborhood party to promote an ealoer celebration. But later that night, a shooting injured eight people near the same corner of Horne and Diaz streets.

This year, police mostly only responded to calls until shots rang out about midnight.

Mayor Mattie Parker, an enthusiastic supporter of ComoFest and Lake Como neighborhood renewal, made one decision right away.

“We need to disperse people after the fireworks at 10 p.m.,” she told KXAS/Channel 5 Sunday

Those who came armed later “meant to do trouble ... and [were] really trying to wreak havoc on a community that loves one another,” she said.

It simply may no longer be safe to have public gatherings past midnight.

As U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey wrote on Facebook: “Too many “grown” people, with child-like rationalization abilities and no adult ability to possess self-control, have guns.”

Everybody has a smartphone these days, so Facebook, Instagram and TikTok quickly filled with videos of the resulting confusion and police response.

Tonya Carter a past city council candidate and occasionally volatile host of the Como Action News Today page on Facebook, narrated as the crowd began fleeing. Fire trucks and ambulances were trying to push through the bystanders at shooting scenes.

At one point, her narration stopped.

“Oh, no!” she shouted in anguish. “My neighbor said their friend got hit.”

“These aren’t our people,” she said later, still in shock. “I don’t know where these people come from.”

At least one of them came to kill.

Theey won’t kill the love and pride in Lake Como.