Two men shot to death during domestic dispute outside a Fort Worth house, police say
A man shot three people, killing two of them, on Wednesday afternoon outside of a house in east Fort Worth during a familial dispute about who was to care for a child, according to police and a man who heard the shots over a telephone.
One of the victims died at the house in the 3500 block of Avenue H, and another died shortly after he was taken to a hospital. The men were shot about 5 p.m.
After the third victim was shot, he went to the 3600 block of East Rosedale Street and was taken in an ambulance to a hospital. His condition was not life-threatening, authorities said.
After opening fire, police said, the suspect left the scene of the city’s first homicide with more than one victim this year. The Fort Worth police fugitive unit was searching for him on Thursday. Police declined to release the name of the suspect, who was wanted for capital murder of multiple persons.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office did not release the victims’ names or ages on Thursday.
The violence erupted when a woman went to the house to pick up her child from his father, who did not want to turn over the boy, said the woman’s boyfriend, who was on the phone with her during the confrontation.
“All I heard was ‘he got a gun and [what are you going] to do with it?” said the boyfriend, who declined to give his name to a reporter.
He said that he heard at least five shots as he listened over the phone.
“That’s all she wanted was her baby,” the man said from outside the Avenue H house.
Essye Mendez and her partner, Eddie Andrade, were walking home from the Speedway Car Wash on East Rosedale Street, near the location where one of the victims went, when they said they heard several gunshots in their immediate vicinity. They were alarmed but not overly concerned, Mendez said, since they had heard gunshots in the area as recently as two nights earlier. There were also people cooking out in the area who did not appear to be hit.
Then they saw a fleet of police vehicles, lights flashing.
Andrade, who is a certified citizen on patrol for the police department, saw a man bleeding from his upper chest, with multiple gunshot wounds. He watched as medics took him away in an ambulance.
He and Mendez live on Avenue H, about a block away from where police tape cordoned the crime scene. It was troubling to think how close they were to heavy gunfire, Mendez said.
“It’s very scary,” she said. “I get scared too easily when I hear gunshots.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 6:15 PM.
