Keeping up with recent gun violence is difficult when there’s so much of it. Today’s news is flush with updates and memorials. Here are some of the stories.
Wednesday, April 24: Workplace Murder-Suicide Near the High Five. Matt Kempf was a 60-year old man with a history of financial troubles and a hospice salesman upset by ethics in his industry. He became a whistleblower, taking binders of documents from his last hospice job to the Dallas Morning News last year. In March, he returned to hospice work and found himself under the supervision of a Lana McAree Canada, a 48-year-old newlywed who had worked with him at his former company. He killed Canada and himself in their office.
Saturday, April 30: Policeman Shoots Unarmed Black Teen in Balch Springs. Fifteen-year-old Jordan Edwards fled a house party with this stepbrother and others on Saturday night when police arrived to, by this account, calmly break it up. Officer Roy Oliver fired his rifle three times as the boys drove away. As the story reads, “…the boys sitting in the back noticed Jordan was slumped over in his seat, smoke coming out his head.” The officer has been fired. A vigil for Jordan was held in Balch Springs last night.
Monday, May 1: Troubled Man Shoots His Godfather and Others in Old East Dallas. Arthur Doyle Riggins was a community activist—from the sounds of it, a pacificist—and a 66-year-old father of eight who often took in troubled young men, including Derrick Lamont Brown, who himself had ties to the New Black Panther Party. On Monday, Brown shot Riggins, a neighbor, and a paramedic. Riggins died, the two others survived, and Brown was found dead in his home by a police robot.
Wednesday, May 3: Apparent Stalker Shoots College Student and Himself on Irving Campus. Janeera Nickol Gonzalez was 22 years old and set to graduate from Irving’s North Lake College with her associates degree in kinesiology next week. Janeera’s brother says Adrian Victor Torres was stalking her. She wasn’t romantically interested, but thought he was harmless. Torres shot Janeera on the North Lake campus before fleeing to another building and, apparently, shooting himself.
Wednesday, May 3: Mother Kills Toddler and Herself in Red Bird Apartment. The Dallas County medical examiner’s office ruled the death of 28-year-old Wallette Ross and her 2-year-old daughter a murder-suicide.
Wednesday, May 3: Concealed Carry Holder Takes Out Incoherent Shooter in Arlington Bar. James Jones, 48, had two loaded guns and two knives. He arrived at Zona Caliente in Arlington early Wednesday evening, began yelling, and shot 37-year-old Cesar Perez, whom authorities believe did not know the assailant. Jones was shot and killed by a customer carrying a concealed handgun, whose name has not been revealed.
