Not Just Dogs: Robbery Suspect Bites Woman at 7-Eleven

Dallas police are seeking a robbery suspect who bit a store clerk during a robbery late last week.  On July 28 at about 1:05 a.m., a black man in a red T-shirt and sneakers entered the 7-Eleven store at 302 North Marsalis Avenue and made a purchase. “When the clerk…

Dallas Police Bust Their Overtime Budget By Millions

The Dallas Police Department has been hit with everything a big city has to offer so far in 2016. There’s been a well-publicized “spike” in violent crime and the murder rate, a string of robberies in Oak Lawn and a campaign visit by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. And then…

Are Pokemon Go Players the Ones Being Hunted?

Dallas police today released a bulletin regarding two very similar robberies of Pokemon Go players near White Rock Lake. The first incident occurred on July 22, 2016 at about 1:05 a.m, when officers responded to a robbery call in the 600 block of E. Lawther. “The victim was robbed at…

Murder Trial Begins For Slayer of Richardson Gay Pornographer

Richardson firefighters who came to an office building on the 500 block of E. Arapaho were met with an odd chemical smell, too rancid for a regular fire. The source of the blaze was a nondescript suite with no business name on it, Suite 105.   What they found inside on…

Mayor Invokes Dead Cops to Get Fair Park Contract Signed by Thursday

Mayor Mike Rawlings invoked the five police officers murdered in Dallas July 7 in an effort to pressure the Dallas Park and Recreation Board to sign a contract Thursday that would turn over control of Fair Park to the mayor’s personal delegate, retired oil executive Walt Humann. “In recent weeks,…

With Hinckley About to Get Out, Let’s Assess Our Own Mental Health.

The impending release of John Warnock Hinckley Jr., the University Park product who shot President Reagan in 1981, has got me thinking in a little bit different direction. Most of the writing I’m seeing on Hinckley’s release is about the insanity defense used successfully by Hinckley’s lawyers to get him…

Garland Cops Name Suspect in Journalist’s Murder

It seems that Jay Torres, the DFW-based La Estrella freelancer killed in the backyard of a Garland home last month, was not killed because he was a journalist. Garland Police announced Tuesday afternoon that they are looking for Anibal Edilfredo Chirino Mejia, 23, of Garland. Mejia, police believe, killed Torres over a…

Cop Killer Micah Johnson Wanted to Bring Gun to Anti-Trump Rally

Last June 17, when organized anti-Trump protesters showed up outside a Donald Trump rally in Dallas, Breitbart, the conservative online news service, described some of the protesters with the headline: “Dallas Anti-Trump Protesters Are Entitled, Vile and Stupid.” Well, at least Micah Johnson, the shooter who killed five Dallas cops three…

Organizers Behind Pre-Cop Shooting Protest Postpone Their Next Event

Next Generation Action Network, the primary organization behind the July 7 protest against police brutality that preceded five Dallas police officers being shot to death by Micah Xavier Johnson, has, for the second time since the shooting, postponed the march scheduled for this week. The head of the network, Dominique…

Police Provide Details of Shootout at El Centro

Micah Xavier Johnson started his rampage by pulling his SUV onto Lamar Street. The street was empty, cleared out in anticipation of the police protest march that was just concluding downtown. He parked his vehicle sideways in the street, grill facing El Centro’s east entrance. There, El Centro College Police…

Organizers of Pre-Shooting March Make Their Next Move

Dominique Alexander, the head of Next Generation Action Network and one of the people behind the protest that preceded July 7 police shootings in downtown Dallas, is not wasting much time. The group’s next protest, he announced Monday afternoon, is going to go on Thursday night, two weeks to the…

The Observer’s Guide to the Race and Police In Dallas

Dallas’ police department has received intense scrutiny since Micah Johnson ambushed Dallas police following a march against police brutality on July 7. Our city has a complex history with law enforcement that the Observer has extensively covered. Here’s a quick list of reading material that can help explain the dynamic between the…

City Preserves Impromptu DPD Memorials

As Dallas was hit with rain Friday morning, the Dallas Public Library moved to save the memorial that sprung up at police headquarters in the immediate aftermath of July 7’s police ambush. Everything hand-written or non-perishable from the memorial will be saved. Thousands of items left by people from around…

Scandal-Plagued Baylor Gets a New Athletic Director

It’s official: Mack Rhoades is Baylor University’s new athletic director. The former athletic director at the University of Houston and, most recently, the University of Missouri, Rhoades has to rebuild a program reeling with accusations of sexual assaults by players.   The task he faces is hard to underestimate, and…