Crime & Police

Cue the weird science fiction music for “THE RETURN OF RENEE.” You want to see something really scary? Go to the Dallas Police Department Twitter page, Dallas Police Dept @DallasPD, scroll down a day or two and look at the item, “Today, Chief Hall returns to duty.” It’s a cellphone…

Proving the axiom that even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut this week is Texas Attorney General and friend of the Observer Ken Paxton. Thursday afternoon, Paxton — who’s still under felony indictment and still trying to get Texans with pre-existing conditions kicked off their health insurance — found his…

Dallas’ six weeks-running municipal mystery is over. Police Chief U. Renee Hall will be back on the job Monday, Dallas City Manager TC Broadnax announced Wednesday night. Hall’s been on medical leave since July. According to the department, Hall’s personal doctor suggested she undergo major surgery after Hall’s mother died…

Attorney General William Barr appeared with Senator John Cornyn to promote safe neighborhood program while side-stepping the issue of wide-spread gun control.

Taking a page from former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ preferred form of leadership, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson took his first swing at addressing the spate of high-profile murders that have shaken his city in 2019, announcing Monday that he’s created a civilian task force to look into violent crime in…

On one level, the whole thing’s absurd, that there are so many legal questions to argue about as we approach former Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger’s murder trial. The facts are not in dispute. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean almost a year ago, as Jean hung out alone…

We accept the murder of children here. We allow it. We expect it. We are unwilling to make any of the serious sacrifices necessary to save these lives. Calling these deaths random or senseless is a lie. In six weeks, three children have been shot to death in two incidents…

The Dallas Police Department said Thursday afternoon that they’ve identified a suspect in the shooting death of 9-year-old Brandoniya Bennett. She was shot and killed Wednesday evening as she sat in her apartment on Munger Avenue in Old East Dallas. According to Dallas Police Maj. Danny Williams, the first link in…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his plans Wednesday to address the Aug. 3 mass murder in El Paso. It sounds an awful lot like his response to the school shooting in Santa Fe last year. This time around, the governor will be holding roundtable discussions and convening a task force…

It started almost as soon as police arrested the man accused of murdering 22 people at an El Paso Walmart on Saturday morning. Texas’ political leaders got in line and on their marks before turning to one of the most well-worn pages in their hymnals. Thoughts and prayers abounded, as…

Rakem Balogun and his son were asleep in their apartment early one December morning about two years ago when they woke up to the sound of a crash. Balogun, a North Texas activist, got out of bed and walked into his living room. From where he was standing, he couldn’t…

Last week, D Magazine posted an interesting piece by Peter Simek about gentrification. The setup gave me pause. Something about the Jim Lake Co. telling me gentrification is good for me summoned unpleasant memories of my Grandma Alice and Pepto Bismol. My brothers and I suspected her of owning stock…

Walking to his ride-share pickup point and smoking a cigarette after a late show at the Twilite Lounge, a man, who has asked to remain anonymous, was approached by two men who asked him for a light. One of the men lit what looked like a blunt, appeared to take…

Our basic rights: that’s one thing. Very important. I’m a huge fan of basic rights. But I also don’t want people to get shot. So I’ve been wondering lately if here in Dallas we need to have a second conversation. If, like me, you really don’t want to get shot,…

A third, previously unidentified domino has fallen in the federal corruption case involving late former City Council member Carolyn Davis and low-income housing developer Ruel Hamilton. According to documents filed in federal court, the go-between for alleged bribery payments between Hamilton and Davis pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony…

A Dallas County jury has found a former Mesquite Police Department officer not guilty in his second trial for aggravated assault after shooting an unarmed man twice in the back in 2017. Derick Wiley’s first trial in 2018 ended with a hung jury. Wiley shot Lyndo Jones after responding to…

The script, if you’ve been around cop trials in Dallas or anywhere else over the last several years, is easy to follow. Derick Wiley, the former Mesquite Police Department officer on trial for aggravated assault by a public servant, shot Lyndo Jones twice in the back as Jones ran away…

For the second time, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is trying to send former Mesquite police officer Derick Wiley to prison for shooting Lyndo Jones in the back. Wiley is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony. Wiley shot Jones after responding to a call…

Former Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who said “times have changed” since he helped convicted sex-predator Jeffrey Epstein skate, made himself ridiculous by choosing too recent a date. Things can’t have changed that much since 2008, basically the blink of an eye. But some things may have changed in more…

The motion filed by former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger’s lawyers asking for her murder trial to be moved out of Dallas is 60 pages long not counting appendices. It raises very tough questions that anybody with a fair mind would have trouble answering thoughtfully right off the bat. They…

Hours after the 2016 shooting that ended five police officers’ lives at a rally against police brutality in downtown Dallas, Mark Hughes was making the long walk through the chaos of the night back to his truck with a friend. His friend’s phone rang. “Get away from Mark,” the voice…