Man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in Fort Worth as her kids stood nearby
A Grand Prairie man has been charged with shooting his former girlfriend to death in April 2018 during a dispute while her young sons were only a few feet away.
Christopher Jaren Manning, 29, was arrested last month after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the killing of Day’zshia McKinley, 27, at her apartment in Fort Worth.
Manning was scheduled to make his initial appearance in court Monday. He has been charged with murder, and he was in the Tarrant County Jail on Monday in lieu of $100,000 bail.
“I was scared of him,” said McKinley’s mother, Yvette Robson of Fort Worth, in a Monday telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “My daughter was a very caring person who gave this man a second chance.”
But eventually, McKinley stopped seeing Manning in late 2017, she said.
“She told me he wasn’t a good role model for the boys,” Robson said. Manning was not the father of McKinley’s three children.
“He kind of stalked her after they broke up,” Robson said.
McKinley was shot to death on April 21, 2018, minutes after she opened the door to her apartment in the 4400 block of Thornton Street in northwest Fort Worth, her mother said.
McKinley died from a gunshot wound to her chest, and her death has been ruled a homicide, according to officials with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The shooting was reported shortly before 7 p.m. on April 21, 2018, at the Providence at Marine Creek Apartments.
Robson said her daughter opened the apartment door and stepped out onto the breezeway. Residents reported hearing a scuffle and then the gunshots.
At that time, McKinley’s three young boys, ages 5, 3 and 18 months, were in the apartment just a few feet from where their mother was killed.
These days, Robson is raising the three boys, and this year marks the second year that Robson does not have McKinley with her to enjoy the holidays. McKinley would have been 29 on Nov. 27.
To honor her daughter’s life, Robson, who is a social services worker in Fort Worth, organized a fundraiser for victims of domestic violence in 2018, and she has another one scheduled Friday.
“We cover such things as what happens when you’re in a violent relationship,” Robson said. “And the grief.”
The fundraiser is at 7 p.m. Friday at Wonderful Memories Event Hall, 4301 Fair Park Blvd. in Fort Worth. Proceeds go to SafeHaven of Tarrant County.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 2:19 PM.
