Fort Worth community members reacted to the fatal shooting inside a West 7th bar early Sunday, with some calling it senseless violence as police work to find the suspects.
Patrique Allen, 31, was shot to death and five people were wounded at about 1:40 a.m. at Social LIVV, at 3005 Bledsoe St., police said.
Allen was short in his upper torso, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Another man and four women who were also shot were taken from the nightclub to hospitals by ambulance or in their own vehicles.
All five surviving victims were stable as of Sunday afternoon and their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, police said.
Another senseless crime
Michelle Watkins, 35, of Fort Worth saw about the shooting on Facebook and thought, “Oh, wow, another senseless crime,” she told the Star-Telegram.
“It (gun violence) also is recurring; you see this kind of periodically,” Watkins said. “I guess the everyday civilians are kind of getting numb to this.”
Watkins said law enforcement should stay alert when passing by a crowd, and stop to make sure everything is OK.
“In the heat of the moment, you don’t know what’s going to happen when a bunch of people are out and about,” Watkins said.
Jordan Williams, 25, of Fort Worth said she feels sad for the victims.
“It’s just a really tragic thing that happened,” Williams said. “You don’t think that you’re gonna go out and have a good night and not expect to come back in the morning.”
A man was killed and five people were wounded early Sunday morning in an apparently gang-related shooting inside Social LIVV, a bar on Bledsoe Street in Fort Worth’s West 7th entertainment district, police said.
Williams, who lives in the entertainment district west of downtown Fort Worth, said it is a “pretty safe neighborhood during the week, but people that come from outside of the neighborhood on the weekends, that’s what makes it kind of dangerous.”.
“But once Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday hit, it just turns into a completely different type of town,” Williams said.
“I wasn’t honestly surprised, because I’ve been hearing that the location is sketchy for a while,” 23-year-old Kayla Pargas said about the nightclub shooting.
Pargas, who has worked in the West 7th area, said other business owners have been trying to get that location shut down for some time because of rumors of gang-related activity.
“If you have a gut feeling, always take it and be aware of your surroundings and what’s going on and how other people are reacting to different situations,” Pargas said when offering advice to young people.
Increased police patrolling
Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia immediately said, “We need more people out on the streets,” according to a department spokesperson.
The chief sent multiple units to increase patrols in high-crime areas after three homicides that happened at the start of the weekend, police spokesperson Officer Bradley Perez said.
“We do know that 7th Street gets a little crazy during the weekends, especially with the younger generation,” Perez said. “As a matter of fact, for some time now, we’ve had our own little police unit for 7th Street, specifically for them to be out there on the weekends.”
Perez said community members and law enforcement need to work together in order to combat violent crime.
“If you see something suspicious, if you know something suspicious, speak up,” he said.
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In their preliminary investigation, homicide detectives determined that multiple unidentified suspects fired handguns inside the bar in what appears to be an unprovoked, gang-related shooting, police said.
Police said the suspects ran immediately after the shooting and before officers arrived.
No arrests have been made in the case, police said Sunday afternoon.