“You can’t just go around in Fort Worth shooting at individuals, human lives, and expect to get away with it,” Officer Buddy Calzada said.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Marquita Deveraux and Drucilla Rodriguez have been waiting for someone to be held accountable for shooting and injuring their children.
On Thursday, Fort Worth police announced the arrest of five individuals involved in the shooting, sticking to their promise they would not give up looking for the suspects.
“It seems like it took forever for this outcome to come,” Marquita Deveraux said.
Fort Worth Police arrested five young people ages 17 to 20 who all face aggravated assault charges and more.
On May 1, as children played outside their Las Vegas trail apartment building suddenly they came under fire. Bullets from a gun inside a red Kia sent them running for safety.
Police said they used the home surveillance video to find the shooters along with statements from witnesses who also wanted the suspects held accountable.
“These detectives and the units who helped with this worked around the clock non-stop. The video gave us a good starting point,” said Officer Buddy Calzada, “You can’t just go around in Fort Worth shooting at individuals, human lives, and expect to get away with it.”
Investigators, who recovered 11 guns, said the suspects borrowed the Kia for the drive-by shooting. Bullets struck six children. The oldest victim is 19-year-old Tanzania Day hit in the right leg. The youngest is 3-year-old Me’Chelle Kinney who lost a kidney, underwent multiple surgeries, and deals with emotional scars too.
“As my three-year-old I have to put her in counseling, mentally and physically it’s stuck in her head, telling people she’s going to shoot and kill them so,” said Drucilla Rodriguez.
Since the shooting, some of the parents say they have not been able to return to work due to the care of their injured children. Now the victims and their neighbors are getting much-needed social services like free food thanks to community organizations.
Both mothers are also relying on the generosity of family, friends, and even strangers. They started fundraisers with hopes of relocating out of the apartment complex for the sake of their children’s mental health. Their children have been afraid to go outside alone since the shooting.
Drucilla Rodriguez’s fundraiser is https://gofund.me/765286b4 where she outlined the injuries of not only her daughter who was shot, but also her 6-year-old son. In the fundraiser for Marquita Deveraux whose son was grazed by a bullet, she shared hopes of relocating to a safer place to live. https://gofund.me/06664728
“The Las Vegas Trail community is a great community, and they have great families there. What has taken place there is very unfortunate and an isolated incident, and has nothing to do with them,” said Officer Calzada, “We have gone out of our way to partner with them because they love us as much as we love them.”
Fort Worth Pastor Reverend Kyev Tatum recruited the Tarrant Food Bank and the non-profit Las Vegas Rise to help offer services to the families impacted by the shooting as well as their neighbors.
Still, the parents of the victims have a lot of questions for the young suspect’s parents.
“Did you speak about gun violence and the effects that it has on others and their families?” said Deveraux.