Killing of aspiring rapper led to Mother’s Day shootout at Fort Worth park, police say
The five people wounded in a shootout at Village Creek Park in May were victims in a gang war between Crip and Blood sets who were arguing and posturing on social media about the fatal shooting of an up-and-coming Fort Worth rapper, according to police.
So far, at least 10 adults and an unknown number of juveniles have been arrested or detained in connection with the Village Creek Park shootings that took place on Mother’s Day.
The police have not named a suspect in the killing of Javien Calvin Wright, a 17-year-old rapper found fatally shot outside a residence in the 1500 block of East Mulkey Street on Feb. 25 with a gun by his side.
Police identified Wright, who was also known as J-Dub, as a Blood gang member. During March, April and May, officers responded to multiple shooting incidents where the targets were Crip gang members, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The tensions escalated until they erupted into the Mother’s Day gun battle at the park, where more than 400 people had gathered, according to police.
This gun battle was prefaced by a soundtrack with music videos still publicly available on YouTube. Grievances between gang members on the east and south sides of Fort Worth were discussed and possibly intensified by some of these videos.
A YouTube vlogger who identified himself as Sperry Springer posted a video on YouTube titled: “Why Channel 5 J-Dub is dead.” The video is dated March 2 and is replete with images of young Black men bouncing and making hand gestures while holding guns and wads and wads of cash. The video is laced with profanity and the N-word.
Springer’s video is also colored by what seems like a genuine sadness for a young man from the Stop 6 community in Fort Worth who died a violent death.
Springer’s narrative says it is unlikely that what really happened to Wright will ever be known because no one really cares what happens in the hood.
“It’s dangerous out here,” Springer says in the video.
“I’m doing this for awareness now,” Springer says in the video. “Some time’s passed, so I want to talk about it so people know the reality of living in Fort Worth, Texas. And this rap (expletive deleted) being realer, and closer to reality than in most cities.”
Attempts to contact Springer have not been successful.
Video of Wright’s body lying on the ground remains available on YouTube.
Gun battle
Two of the five park shooting victims suffered from critical wounds, and police later identified two of the victims, Caleb Houston and Avin Wilburn, as Crip gang members and suspects in the shootings, the affidavit states.
Houston, AKA “Cheese,” and Wilburn, AKA “Cash,” were each struck by gunfire, the affidavit states.
About 20 minutes after the park shooting, a second shooting was reported to police at Joe’s Food Mart, 4225 Miller Ave., where a gun was fired, but it is unclear whether anyone was seriously injured.
Witnesses told police that several Crip gang members began to hit shoulders against and stare menacingly “mean mugging” at Blood gang members, then the Crips left the park, according to the affidavit.
Several of the Crip gang members returned with weapons, police said.
A gunshot was fired from the area where Houston and Wilburn were located and witnesses said they saw a person or persons return gunfire who are not identified in the affidavit.
Wilburn limped away with a woman’s help and Houston continued firing until he ran out of ammunition and tossed his gun into a trash can, the affidavit stated.
Witnesses told police that several individuals met in a park in Everman before reconnecting in Village Creek Park. One witness told a detective that he saw a pistol on Houston’s lap while he sat in a blue Kia Soul, according to the affidavit.
Witnesses also told police they saw two other suspects, Daveon Harden and Kevin Goss, in possession of handguns with about a dozen other Crip gang members, walking through Village Creek Park toward an area where other people were gathered.
One witness said he saw Houston standing near the parking lot firing a pistol several times toward the pavilion area, the affidavit states.
Gang and rap connections
Another suspect, Kieston Allen, saw a woman in the park and threatened her, according to her statement to a Fort Worth police detective described in another affidavit.
“On Blood, that’s the opp,” Allen reportedly said. “We about to air her out.”
She moved away after his threat, and was standing near a pickup truck when the shooting began, she told police. A woman who stood near her was among the five people who were shot.
The woman whom Allen allegedly threatened told a detective that she believed she was the shooter’s intended target.
Affidavits supporting the arrests of Allen, Kristopher Robinzine and Dcameron McKellar indicated the violence resulted from conflict among members of the Bloods street gang subset APE and members of Crips subset YTN.
There are videos on YouTube that depict Wright as a gangster and involved with the APE gang, which are inextricably linked to his rapping. According to Springer’s commentary on YouTube, when you see the videos, you see the guns but, “He’s still just a kid man. He’s a 17-year-old kid.”
The rap videos talked about things that were done and amplified any hard feelings about what had gone on, Springer explained. A gold chain that Wright was suspected of taking from someone is repeatedly mentioned throughout several videos, and it apparently became a source of friction, according to Springer’s commentary.
“Your life’s their entertainment, and they’ll flip the channel real quick,” Springer said in a video about Wright’s death. “You gotta know who’s really in your corner and you gotta know who’s just trying to use you.”
“This is life in Fort Worth, Murda Worth, Texas man,” Springer said.
The police investigation
Police seized and searched the cell phones of at least two suspects which corroborated statements made during witness and suspect interviews, an affidavit said.
A video taken by one the suspects, Xzayvier Brown, showed several suspected Crip members and their associates flashing gang signs at Village Creek Park, and at least two of the suspects were armed with handguns, the affidavit said.
The video shows Wilburn with a silver snub-nosed revolver that matches the description of a handgun that was found at the crime scene and that had been fired, according to police.
Investigators also found text messages warning those who were involved to delete any incriminating information, the affidavit said.
An Instagram message on Brown’s phone sent the day after the shooting said: “On6 y’all hit nun but the innocent,” the affidavit said.
“Investigators have knowledge that no Blood members were shot during this shooting offense, only Crip members and innocent bystanders,” the affidavit said.
Based on video obtained by police, investigators said that the Crip and Blood sets encountered each other at Village Creek Park about 5:35 p.m., and the Crips left and regrouped at Shipley’s Donuts about 6 p.m.
Crip gang members armed themselves and returned to the park about 20 minutes later. Investigators say the Crip convoy returned to Shipley’s Donuts and regrouped for their final assault.
The first shots were reported inside the park about 6:35 p.m., the affidavit states.
Three days after the shooting at Village Creek Park, Fort Worth officers responded to a shooting incident in the 2300 block of Meaders Avenue and located some spent .223-caliber shell casings, the affidavit said.
Information from NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, a national database of digital images of spent bullets and cartridge casings found at crime scenes or test fired from seized weapons, indicated the same AR style rifle may have been used at the Meaders Avenue shooting at the Village Creek Park shooting, according to the affidavit.
Based on the investigation, police say that Crip gang members gathered at Shipley’s Donuts and devised a plan to shoot at Blood gang members in Village Creek Park, according to the affidavit.
After locating their targets, the Crip gang members returned to the park and executed that plan, which resulted in a gun battle between the two rival gangs and wounded three innocent bystanders, police said.
At least 10 adults have been formally charged and other adults may be implicated, according to the affidavit.
Families with children who have been named in the shooting say at least three and perhaps as many as four juveniles have also been detained. Protesters outside the juvenile justice center on Friday called for the release of teens they say have been wrongly accused.
Court records show adult suspects recently arrested include Daveon Harden, 19; Jamari Jennings, 17; Xzayvier Brown, 19; Curtis Goss, 22; Marcus Allen Hunter, 22; and Caleb Houston, 20, all of Fort Worth; and Avin Wilburn, 19, of Everman. Each faces a charge of engaging in organized crime, according to court records.
Suspects in this case who have been previously identified by police are Dcameron McKellar, 21, and Kristopher Robinzine, 26, who face charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and Kieston Allen, 20, who is facing a charge of making a terroristic threat. The three were arrested in May.
This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives.
