Dallas' Deep Ellum businesses on edge after back-to-back shootings: "At nighttime, anything can happen"
One person is dead and another is injured after two shootings in Dallas' Deep Ellum neighborhood nearly 24 hours apart.
The first shooting happened overnight Saturday into Sunday on S. Hall Street. Police said 32-year-old Jose Rodriguez-Lucio was the victim and there is no suspect in custody.
The second shooting happened early Monday morning near Good Latimer Expressway and Main Street. Dallas police said someone opened fire on 20-year-old Dontay Johnson and drove away. Investigators discovered that Johnson was involved in the first shooting that happened in the area. Johnson was arrested and charged with deadly conduct. The shooting did cause one person to fall and hit their head, but no one was actually shot.
Dallas police arrested one person after two groups started shooting at each other and moved into the area near Punch Bowl Social.
Business owners call for better patrol strategies after Deep Ellum shootings
"I feel like it's mostly happening not even in the establishments of Deep Ellum," said Chloe Diehl, manager of Allgood Cafe in Deep Ellum. "It's people that are coming and standing on the corners or having their parties in the parking lots or on the sidewalks and stuff."
Employees at the area businesses all agreed – the problem isn't the number of police officers at night, but how they're used.
"We finish early, so we try to get them out of here as fast as possible, because at nighttime, anything can happen, even with the patrolmen," said Corey Peory, manager at Topoff Kutz. "So it's like, not saying that they need to put more, but saying maybe they need to think about how they're patrolling it better."
Some businesses have private security as well.
In a statement to CBS News Texas about safety in the neighborhood, the Deep Ellum Foundation said: "We can prevent incidents or prevent them from escalating through awareness. In addition to our proactive officer patrols every day of the week and especially on weekends, people call us and we respond via our See Say program."
