New Year’s celebration shootings in Arlington lead to deaths of 4-year-old boy, woman
A 4-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman were killed in two separate shootings by people who were carrying guns as they celebrated the end of 2020 just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Arlington police said.
Police responded to a shooting call around 12:30 a.m Friday in the 1600 block of Connally Terrace, where they found Blanca Nelly Guerra dead on the back porch of her Arlington home. She was pronounced dead at 12:38 a.m on the scene.
Police said Guerra and her boyfriend 34-year old Mario Alanis went to her backyard to shoot bullets into the sky to celebrate the New Year. But, Alanis’s gun wouldn’t shoot as he aimed for the skies so he threw the loaded gun onto the ground and then tried to reload it while it was pointed at Guerra. During this time, the firearm went off and struck the victim. The boyfriend then fled the scene.
Alanis was then arrested later that evening. He is charged with manslaughter and unlawful possession of a fireman.
Also at about 12:30 a.m., Arlington police responded to a shooting call in the 700 block of Washington Drive at an apartment complex where 4-year-old Messiah Taplin of Corsicana was fatally shot. Arlington detectives were later notified by Grand Prairie police that the 4-year-old was taken to a hospital in their city and died from a gunshot wound.
Police arrested 21-year-old Zantyler Foster-Hooks with a manslaughter charge and booked him into Arlington Police Department Jail.
Foster-Hooks was with the child in the living room watching a rap music video when he used the gun to mimic what was happening in the video, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Foster-Hooks thought the gun wasn’t loaded.
When police initially arrived, they found a blood trail near an unlocked apartment. Officers went inside and discovered a crime scene. No one was inside the apartment at that time because the boy had already been taken to a hospital.
A witness later reported that while officers were at the Arlington complex a vehicle drove into a parking lot, matching the description of a vehicle that left shortly after the shooting. Police confirmed that the man they were looking for was in this vehicle.
Anyone with information should call Arlington Detective Charles Cisneros at 817-575-3169. Residents could also leave a tip at Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at 817-469-8477.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 5:38 PM.
