Before murder, Fort Worth man told suspects, ‘I ain’t fighting nobody,’ warrant says
A Fort Worth teen who police say was one of three suspects who attacked a man in March and then killed him was in custody Monday after being arrested over the weekend.
One suspect was arrested just weeks after the March 6 killing, but Fort Worth police continued their search Monday for the third suspect.
Isaiah Story, 17, was arrested Friday on a murder warrant in the shooting death of 23-year-old Decoda Roberts of Fort Worth. Roberts died from a gunshot wound and his death was ruled a homicide, according to officials with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The shooting occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. on March 6 in the 4300 block of Poinsetta Drive in Fort Worth.
Story was in the Tarrant County Jail on Monday with bond set at $250,000.
Chad Burrell, 30, of Benbrook, was taken into custody on April 23 and he also has been charged with murder in Roberts’ homicide. He was in the Tarrant County Jail with $250,000 bond.
Burrell’s attorney, Wes Ball of Fort Worth, has filed a motion to reduce the bail to $25,000, saying Burrell was struggling with Roberts over a rifle and the weapon discharged, fatally wounding Roberts. Roberts had brandished the rifle at the time of the struggle, according to Ball’s motion.
Ball said that Burrell didn’t have an issue with Roberts, and that it was the other two suspects who had a conflict with Roberts, according to the motion.
A warrant for Burrell written by Detective C. M. Watson gave this account of the March fatal shooting:
In early 2020, someone had fired off some rounds in the air near the Story’s home in Fort Worth.
In February, Story and and a member of his family had pulled a rifle on Roberts because they believed he was the one who fired the rounds, according to the warrant.
Home surveillance video from the 4300 block of Poinsetta Drive showed that on March 6 three men wearing hooded jackets approached Roberts, who was in the neighborhood to work on a friend’s car.
As the three walk up, there’s the sound of a gun being racked, and Roberts says, “I ain’t never shoot at your house. I ain’t never (expletive) with y’all. I ain’t never (expletive) with none of y’all,” according to the warrant.
In the video, the three men circle Roberts while he says, “I ain’t fighting nobody. I’m going home.”
One of the suspects says something and Roberts replies, ”I”m a grown (expletive) man too, but I’m going the (expletive) home. I ain’t fighting nobody. I’m not trying to fight nobody.”
At some point, Roberts brandished a rifle.
Burrell was armed with a BB gun, according to court documents.
Another sound can be heard on the video as if another gun is being racked, according to the warrant.
In the video, one of the suspects appears to wrestle away an item from Roberts believed to be his rifle while another suspect hits Roberts over the head with a long shiny item — possibly a baseball bat — before a gunshot is heard, according to the warrant.
The suspects ran away from the scene, and one suspect fell twice in a yard and in an area where Fort Worth police found a tennis shoe.
Two witnesses also saw the three men run away from the scene.
Fort Worth detectives used home surveillance videos and tips to identify the suspects.
