Community leaders discuss potential changes to July 4th celebrations after Como shooting
Community members and Fort Worth city leaders are having conversations about potential changes they plan to make in future Fourth of July celebrations in response to this summer’s mass shooting in Como.
Three people were killed and eight others were injured when gunshots were fired into a crowd at an after party on Horne Street and Diaz Avenue two hours after Comofest, the neighborhood’s annual pre-Fourth of July celebration.
Two suspects, Brandon Williams, 19, and Christopher Redic Jr., 20, were arrested in the shooting and are charged with murder.
Ella Burton, president of the Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Council, says community members immediately began deliberating on what could use improvement in holiday celebrations such as Comofest and the unofficial after party that follows the event.
“We now see some things that we could do differently,” Burton said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. “A lot of strategies that we’ll have to do with the neighborhood and businesses.”
The neighborhood council is working on adding more activities and features to formally planned events, such as Comofest, to appeal to younger crowds and to keep younger adults from engaging in illegal activities.
“If you go to any of those, you’ll see all the planned events have young people who are not causing problems,” said Estrus Tucker, a member of the Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Council.
Tucker also said that a bigger police presence is also a change to expect at future Fourth of July weekend events not just as a preventative tactic, but also to address illegal activities that are happening nearby. According to Tucker, the impeding and blocking of traffic specifically on Horne Street, public intoxication, and illegal fireworks are issues Como residents are asking police to better address during the Fourth of July weekend.
Regarding the after party, when a large crowd typically gathers on Horne Street late at night and where violence has erupted two of the past three years, “That’s not an event at all,” Tucker said. “That’s just people gathering and using social media as a rally call.”
Many people from outside Como come to the neighborhood for the block parties, and residents say outsiders are often the ones instigating problems. Although the neighborhood intends to have police more involved, Tucker says residents also do not want the issue of an overwhelming police presence at Fourth of July celebrations.
“We don’t want over-policing, but we can’t afford under-policing because Como residents want to feel safe in their homes and in their neighborhood, like everyone else,” Tucker said.
According to Tucker, the neighborhood council does not plan on trying to prevent block parties or after parties from happening, but are focusing specifically on addressing illegal activity on Horne Street.
“There’s more likely to be a number of healthy, safe celebrations happening around the community on July 3rd,” Tucker reassured. “And you wouldn’t want to just try to make it like a war zone or just shut down all things.”
So far, the neighborhood advisory council also does not plan on trying to limit or discontinue Comofest activities, or the parade on the Fourth. Rather, the council wants to require community members and residents to register any public events they plan to have for future holidays — that way they could be communicated to local law enforcement.
But Tucker added that large informal gatherings could likely lead to problems and said that Como residents are also pushing to change gathering places for parties planned on July 3, moving them away from hubs of crime such as the stretch of Horne Street where shootings have occurred.
The city of Fort Worth has facilitated federal and state funding to revitalize Horne Street, once a bustling strip with successful businesses, according to Tucker.
“If there were thriving businesses in that corridor, that (party) wouldn’t have been gathered there,” Tucker said. “The history of that area is a reflection of the neglect of the economic disparities.”
According to Michael Lockhart — a member of Legacy Lake Como, which began organizing the neighborhood festival in 2021 — the crowd that gathers later in the night on Horne Street has been going on for over 50 years.
“We need to try to figure out what to do with the crowd that has always gathered there,” Lockhart said.
While the shooting did not happen at Comofest, Lockhart says addressing gun violence is something that leaders of the community should come together to collectively address.
“What we need to do is get with the community leaders and work and help the community come up with a plan as a whole, as to how we want to go forward and make sure that nobody else’s kids are getting shot,” Lockhart said.
The Comofest event organizers, Legacy Lake Como, are also discussing the idea of monitoring social media to see if people are planning large gatherings such as the July 3 after party, but they say that it could still be difficult to manage.
“It’s just kind of hard... You can’t tell when somebody just feels the need to pull a gun and shoot,” Lockhart said.
Alongside the neighborhood advisory council, Legacy Lake Como members feel that a larger police presence at public events is necessary to keep attendees safe.
According to Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes, city officials talked to Como residents days after the shooting to discuss the idea of keeping outsiders with bad intentions away from the neighborhood’s events, but that is also a challenge the neighborhood advisory council is facing.
“I don’t think that many of our residents and not many of our leaders would want a limit,” Tucker said about making more changes to who can attend the events. “We have family members that don’t live in Como, so would that mean our family members can’t come?”
But community members say that before any changes to the events can be officially implemented, establishing closely-knit relationships with police is of the utmost importance.
“What we’re looking forward to doing is continuing to build that relationship with the police officers,” said Kevin Fulton, vice president of Legacy Lake Como. “Not only with them, but with other community residents as well, bringing everybody to the table to make this an all-inclusive thing.”
“FWPD leaders have already begun meeting with leaders from the Como community and discussing the community’s vision for what next year’s event will look like and their concerns,” the Fort Worth Police Department said in a statement to the Star-Telegram. “While specific strategies for July 3rd are still being discussed, we are committed to working together with the residents of Como to ensure a safe celebration next year.”
Mayor Mattie Parker told the Star-Telegram in a statement that law enforcement and city leaders are also prioritizing collaboration.
“The Fort Worth Police Department is working with the community to listen and understand their points of view on what the next steps should be. We know this is not a problem that City Hall or the Police Department can solve alone, and conversations will continue in the coming months to collaboratively consider potential solutions and next steps.”
Legacy Lake Como and the neighborhood advisory council also believe that community engagement is key to addressing gun violence.
“Community inclusion is what’s going to help us circumvent any of those issues going forward,” Fulton said.
Burton and Tucker say community pastors and churches are already involved in these discussions they are having with law enforcement and city leaders, and want to include younger residents to make them feel heard.
“What we’ve done in the past — we’ll continue to do — is try to get more and more younger voices listening to them, reaching out to them,” Tucker said about connecting younger Como residents to city leaders. “How do we involve more of you?”
Members of Legacy Lake Como and the neighborhood advisory council also believe that the shooting is not just a “Como problem.”
“We shouldn’t be accountable for young adults and teenagers from around the city. That’s not a Como problem when they gather,” Tucker said. “There has to be more than just Como addressing that. But we understand the disconnect between younger people.”
Fulton agreed the issues go beyond the neighborhood. “You really have to find out what’s at the root of the actual problem, which causes someone to want to do or commit an act such as they did on July the third,” he said.
As the neighborhood advisory council continues to meet with police and other government leaders, they are also discussing gun reform and other means of gun violence prevention.
“There are just some real need-to-knows,” Burton said. “It may not be much, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
“It’s an issue that will have to go to all levels of government, to make some changes there,” Burton said.
This story was originally published August 21, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
