‘I ran inside’ amid gunshots, says witness of fatal shooting

Six people were talking outside an apartment in the 4000 block of East Lancaster Avenue about 2 a.m. Friday. Some some sat, some stood. A few played cards.

That’s when, according to one of the six, a person with a black shotgun shot and killed a man in the group. The man who was killed was identified as Corey Dewayne Stephens, 34, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.

Kayla Wright, 32, who lives with her aunt in the La Hacienda complex, said the group was near the parking lot and a person came up behind them from within the complex, near an open courtyard surrounded by apartments. The individual, whom she couldn’t identify as a man or woman, wore what looked like a black sweater, she said. The bottom part of the shooter’s face, she said, was covered with something black.

The person fired a shotgun toward the group, Wright said, as she and the others ran. She said she heard five gunshots.

“I got out, and I ran inside the house,” Wright said, referencing a nearby apartment where friends live. “I went inside and called the cops and came back outside.”

She went with police after the shooting, she said, and returned to the complex at 5:16 a.m. She wasn’t sure if the suspect had gotten out of a vehicle, she said.

A crowd of people, most of whom said they knew Stephens, were gathered in the complex on Friday around 8 a.m. to vent their frustrations and anger, and question who is to blame.

Fort Worth police said Stephens died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds early Friday. Officers responded to the east Fort Worth complex at 2:12 a.m. for the reported shooting and found Stephens.

He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital and died of his injuries, police said.

Police haven’t named any suspects.

Stephens’ brother, Cliff Sparks, said his sister talked to the medical examiner Friday morning and learned he had died.

Sparks joined the others in the complex. He pleaded that people need to “put the guns down” and wanted to figure out what happened.

“Somebody knows what’s going on,” Sparks said. “I’m over here because I want answers, and I want to know what the hell is going on.”

Shayla Archer, who said she was dating Stephens, said “that was my right-hand man.” She was with the group of six around 2 a.m. but didn’t want to discuss what happened.

“That’s always gonna be my dude, no matter what nobody gotta say about nothing,” she said.

More than 15 Fort Worth police cars responded Friday, according to a police call log.

This story was originally published June 21, 2019 at 7:19 AM.