Crime & Police

Two robots made debuts in Dallas last week, each promising ways to help humans with automation — or at least save them some legwork. One is called Knightscope, a police robot that serves as one part pack mule, one part guard dog. Stacy Stephens is a former Coppell PD police officer and co-founder of…

On Monday the Texas Senate passed a series of bills meant to remedy the problems cops and their families faced during and after Michah Johnson’s July 7 ambush on Dallas police. The bills, all passed on the first voting day for the Texas Senate in 2017, will potentially provide every patrol…

The president of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organizations’ greater Dallas chapter is on restricted Dallas Police Department duty as Mansfield ISD police investigate him for assault, DPD said late Sunday afternoon. Sgt. George Aranda, a 25-year DPD veteran, is assigned to DPD’s gang unit. He won’t be restored to full duty…

For the jury, the media and anyone else interested in a resolution to Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s public corruption trial, this week was a good one. Federal prosecutors finally picked up their pace, running through a significant portion of their witnesses. The jury, unlike the previous week, remained…

Three of Dallas’ police associations are claiming that Dallas Assistant Police Chief Christina Smith received special treatment when cops appeared at her Lakewood home in February. The Dallas Fraternal Order of Police, the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas and the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization also claim a follow-up investigation has only made…

Hakeem Griffin-White and Ashley Coleman are in Dallas County jail, Dallas police reported Monday,  for allegedly murdering Drekeiston Alex last Thursday. The shooting was caught on a surveillance video. The pair allegedly discussed the crime on social media, and police found a deleted video in which the couple talked about shooting…

The SWAT team glide down a door-lined hallway in an abandoned juvenile center on the outskirts of Mansfield. Guns at the ready, they follow one another like soldiers on a sweep, sticking close to the walls, entering rooms two at a time. These are the guys police call when they…

Finally, after almost a decade of investigation, nearly three years of trial delays and a week of jury selection and indictment reading, the United States of America v. John Wiley Price, et al. began in earnest last week with opening statements. The Observer was there, as we will be throughout…

Up until yesterday, the prosecutors in the corruption trial of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and his chief of staff, Dapheny Fain, controlled the narrative. But on Thursday afternoon, thanks to a strong cross-examination from attorneys Shirley Baccus-Lobel and Marlo Cadeddo, the defense team began to make their own headway. Their…

What could the Northeast Police Department be working toward on any given day? Stopping sex trafficking? Pulling over drunk drivers? Pursuing strong arm robbers and drug kingpins? Making sure pesky teenagers and drunk college kids don’t steal those little orange number tents from Whataburger? The police department responsible for Cross Roads…

Katie Jones, according to Cedar Hill police, didn’t get to enjoy the proceeds of her Wednesday robbery for long. On Wednesday morning, police say, the 60-year-old Dallas resident hit the Chase bank just off State Highway 67 in the southwest Dallas County suburb, demanding cash and driving away with an…

A Carrollton puppy is expected to make a full recovery after a heroin overdose in the parking lot of a Carrollton Home Depot. Nina Crawford, 38, and Thomas Romero, 46, left the dog in the floorboards of their truck as the went into the home improvement store to switch price…

The beatings lasted for hours, but Danny Cannon couldn’t see who was doing them. The three masked men placed duct tape over his eyes as they rummaged through his house, searching for cash and seeking bank account information. They used a handgun to threaten and pistol whip him. Cannon, who’s…

Christopher Duntsch, the Dallas doctor convicted last week of paralyzing an elderly patient during a botched 2012 surgery, is going to prison for life. A Dallas County jury took a little more than an hour to sentence him Monday afternoon. Duntsch, 45, was stripped of his medical license in 2013 following…

Larry Gene McCollum was 58 years old in 2011 when he was busted for a bad check in Waco. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 330 pounds, with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and a tendency toward depression. He was sentenced to a year in…

Texas state Senators Konni Burton and Chuy Hinojosa aren’t going to be cowed by President Donald Trump, at least not about reforming civil forfeiture in Texas. Both senators want to fix the way the state deals with assets seized from people accused of crimes, even if the president recently promised Rockwall…

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, the Phoenix man who helped plan and supplied guns for the 2015 attack on a Muhammad-themed art contest in Garland, is going to federal prison for 30 years, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton decided Wednesday. Kareem, 44, became the first person convicted by a United States jury…

Brett Randall sat in the passenger seat of his friend’s car early Thursday morning, waiting to head into work. A gray car approached. Knowing they were in trouble, the driver would tell Dallas police later, he began to drive away from the parking spot he’d been in. A man in…

Dallas Police and the Dallas FBI’s violent task force are on the hunt for two bank robbers the agencies believe have committed eight robberies in Dallas since mid-December. The two men are also suspected of robbing a bank in University Park and another in Fort Smith, Arkansas, during this same…

Tyrone Paxton was shot dead in broad daylight in mid-morning on April 19. His body fell next to the road at 2800 Cleveland St. in Southeast Dallas, alongside a vacant, grassy lot overlooked by nearby apartment buildings and their parking lots. Dallas homicide Detective Derick Chaney believes as many as…