Man fatally shot in back yard in north Fort Worth

A man was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon in the back yard of a house close to the QuikTrip convenience store at North Main Street and East Northside Drive.

Officials with the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office on Thursday morning identified the victim as Jeremiah Harvey, 33, but his hometown address was not released.

Fort Worth police received the 911 call at 5:18 p.m. from the 1200 block of North Commerce Street.

Willie Garza said he was working at Baldo’s Garage at 1200 N. Main St. when he heard five or six shots.

“They came quick like from a handgun,” Garza said. “I called 911.”

Garza said he saw a tow truck pass his shop.

“There was a short wrecker with a chain still hanging and its lights still on,” Garza said. “It was a small, white wrecker.”

Connie Martinez, who lives across the street from the house, said: “I heard gunshots and looked out the window. A tow truck in the back of the yard — down the driveway — took off down the street toward Northeast 11th Street.”

Martinez said she heard a woman crying, “Someone help him!” The woman was hunched over a man’s body and started CPR, Martinez said.

Martinez and her husband, Jessie Martinez, saw a man pacing in front of the house on a cellphone before he walked up the block in the same direction as the tow truck.

“People just come and go out of that house,” Jessie Martinez said as he pointed across the street. “I’ve lived here my whole life and don’t know who those people are.”

The man’s body lay face up in the back yard as the sun began to set Wednesday. Officers were waiting for a team from the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

Police Lt. Glenn Verrett confirmed that investigators were looking for the tow truck driver.

“We are trying to locate someone involved — a person of interest driving a tow truck,” Verrett said.

He said he had “no idea” if the driver was passing by or if he was stopped at the house.

“We have a lot of different information from different sources,” he said.

About an hour after the shooting, at least three people were sitting on the front porch of the house. A woman sobbed while others smoked cigarettes.

Verrett said he didn’t know if the people were related.

“The people who live there — I’m not sure if it’s a family or a commune,” he said.

Reached by phone later, the owner of the property as listed by the Tarrant Appraisal District said the house is not rental property. Asked if her family lived there, she said she didn’t know the person killed and said “no comment.”

Staff writer Domingo Ramirez Jr. contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Man fatally shot in back yard in north Fort Worth."