Family of man who fired shots at Duncanville summer camp speaks about mental health issues
A 42-year-old Dallas man who was killed by police after firing shots at a Duncanville youth summer camp on Monday morning was experiencing a mental health episode, his family told news outlets.
Brandon Keith Ned entered the Duncanville Fieldhouse, at 1700 S. Main St., with a handgun shortly before 8:45 a.m. He walked into the facility through the front door and first fired a shot in the lobby of the building after exchanging words with a staff member, police said in a news conference Monday. He then fired another shot at the locked door of a classroom that had children inside, police said.
Ned was fatally shot by responding officers shortly after the incident occurred, but Ned’s family said they wish he was arrested and taken into custody alive. No one else was hurt.
“My husband was bipolar. He was having an episode. He has an episode every three years, but he’s never hurt anyone,” Brandon Ned’s wife, LaQuitha Ned, told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV. “I’m so glad nobody was hurt at the fieldhouse, but I wish they would have allowed my husband to come back home to me so that I could get him some help.”
LaQuitha Ned added that her husband’s paranoia episodes made him feel like he had to “protect his family,” and that the 42-year-old had taken a gun that belonged to her.
“I didn’t know he had the gun at that time,” LaQuitha Ned told WFAA-TV. “He’s not supposed to own a gun. I own a gun. It stays in a lock box with the key hidden.”
LaQuitha Ned had just gotten off FaceTime with her husband minutes before the shooting, she said. He was planning on coming home after tagging along with a friend to drop her children off at the Duncanville camp. She believes her husband went into the fieldhouse after the friend took too long inside and he wanted to know where she was.
“I feel like if he’d went in to hurt someone, someone would’ve been hurt,” LaQuitha Ned said. “No one was hurt except my husband.”
Brandon Ned’s brother DeWayne also told news outlets that he had spoken to his brother earlier in the day and was relieved he was with a friend. DeWayne Ned also said that he doesn’t believe his brother intended to hurt anyone.
“I want to apologize to everyone at the fieldhouse, everyone that was involved,” DeWayne Ned told KXAS-TV. “But I just want to let you know that he was never there purposefully and intentionally to hurt anyone.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 10:31 AM.
