Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
Related Articles
Fort Worth police arrested two men Friday in connection with a mass shooting that killed three and wounded eight in Como.
Police arrested Christopher Redic Jr., 20, and Brandon Williams, 19, in connection with the shooting, Neil Noakes, the department’s chief, said in a Friday news conference. They were booked on murder charges, online police records show.
The gunfire erupted before midnight Monday when police say several men fired at random into a crowd that gathered almost two hours after Fourth of July activities ended in the historic neighborhood in West Fort Worth. Gabriella Navarrete, 18, Cynthia Santos, 22, and Paul Willis, 18, were killed in the shooting.
At the conference, Noakes said their lives were taken from them “violently and senselessly.” On Thursday night, he said he attended a meeting at the Como Community Center where community members, including some relatives of the victims, spoke about the trauma and the heartache.
But Noakes said he also heard about the resilience of the Como community.
“Despite the tragedy of the situation, despite the young lives that were taken, we saw a community who instead of laying down and giving up, stood tall, rallied around one another and loved one another,” Noakes said.
Eight people, one of whom is a child, were being treated at hospitals. In videos of the shooting posted online, more than two dozen shots ring out and people running in the street are nearly hit by cars as drivers race to leave.
Police confirmed none of the wounded were suspects. Noakes did not share what evidence led them to arresting Redic and Williams. He added the men are from Fort Worth and were arrested in the city but he does not know if they lived in the Como neighborhood.
It’s not clear if the men have an attorney and if their bail has been set on the charges.
Before shots were fired, Noakes said there was some type of altercation, but he did not know who the gunmen were targeting. Police believe Redic and Williams fired shots into the crowd, but Noakes said he’s “not ready at this point to say they were the only ones.”
Noakes also lamented gun violence, saying “there is so much more to live for.” He spoke about the One Second Collaborative, an education and outreach program aimed at addressing youth violence.
“If the first thought you have is to turn to a gun, just take one second, make another choice, live to see tomorrow,” Noakes said.
Family members of Willis told The Dallas Morning News that he graduated from Arlington Heights High School, worked at McDonald’s and planned to study to become an electrician. A cousin of Santos — 28-year-old Tania Torres — said she loved Santos like a sister and described her as a hard worker, who had a job at a gyro restaurant in Fort Worth.
According to a GoFundMe page to cover funeral expenses, Navarrete recently graduated from Weatherford High School and was attending L Makeup Institute in Southlake. The page said she was excited to start a career in a craft she enjoyed so much.
On Wednesday, dozens of community members, including pastors, local elected officials and neighborhood organization leaders met at Como First Missionary Baptist Church.
They called for a united response to the shooting, and the event morphed into a meeting to grieve and discuss next steps for the neighborhood.
Community members told The News that the shooting had nothing to do with ComoFest, a Fourth of July festival in the neighborhood, as it occurred about a half a mile away from where the festival was held and almost two hours after it ended.
Noakes said Fort Worth police officers were in the immediate area and some were staged at other locations for quick response.
“This year, unfortunately, somebody chose to grab a weapon and make it a violent situation,” Noakes said.
He spoke with community members at the center about how ComoFest must look moving forward and added that changes will be made to the event.
Noakes said he’s planning meetings with members of the community to determine what’s best for everyone’s safety and enjoyment.
“That after party, if you will, that’s not going to look the same,” Noakes said.