To the naked eye, the UPS parcel contained nothing but an ordinary wooden folding chair and two paintings. Not precisely the “wooden frames” described on the shipping manifest, but nothing that isn’t shipped across the country hundreds or thousands of times every day. But U.S. Customs agents at the UPS…
It started, police say, with a trip to the club on Saturday night. Kassandra Martinez, 20, picked up three of her cousins in her decade-old Passat and set off for Viviana’s Nite Club, near the intersection of Stemmons and Royal Lane. The deal was, Martinez would drive and everyone would…
A 1-year-old child died after being left in a locked car in the parking lot of Frank Guzick Elementary School in Pleasant Grove. The child’s mother is a teacher at the school, according to a statement from Dallas ISD. A statement from the Dallas Police Department says that a witness…
The Morning News broke the news this morning that officials had narrowed the cause of last month’s deadly West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion to one of three things: a golf cart, an electrical short, or criminal activity. That wasn’t terribly narrow, but there was a press conference scheduled this afternoon,…
It’s 5:30 on a Wednesday morning, and you’re broke. Maybe you’re short on rent. Maybe you need some beer. Either way you need to get some cash. It’s too early to rob a bank. They’re all closed. So are jewelry stores. All-night convenience stores have too little cash at this…
By most accounts, Steve Abraira did a decent job as Dallas’ fire chief. He served for five years, was well-respected by the rank-and-file, and ran a department with no glaring issues. But somewhere along the line, he crossed City Manager Mary Suhm, who issued an ultimatum: resign or be fired…
On Monday, Irving police investigators were tipped off that a U-Haul truck containing a sizable batch of drugs was parked somewhere inside the city. They found the truck in front of a closed business on Irving Boulevard, so officers set up shop, hanging back and watching to see if someone…
Police don’t make a habit of blasting out the names and faces of 17-year-old crime suspects, but the Irving Police Department made an exception for Travis Lekas. The Nimitz High School student was arrested Monday on charges that he drugged a fellow student and forced her into prostitution. According to…
Yesterday, the Dallas Police Department has blanketed its Facebook page with a portrait and brief biography of every officer killed in the line of duty over the past 121 years. The procession of 80 mostly young faces is a somber reminder of how dangerous a job policing is. A handful…
Last Saturday, the folks taking in the new George W. Bush Presidential Center were briefly under the frightening misimpression that it had come under terrorist attack, as reports of an “active shooter” put the center and SMU on lockdown. Among the visitors were Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The…
If there’s one thing everyone in America can agree on this morning, it’s that Kermit Gosnell is disgusting and belongs in an especially dank and fetid section of some sort of subterranean prison. In a case that millions of talking heads have been shouting at you about from your TV,…
The man who knocked on David Goldman’s door at 9:30 last night didn’t look like trouble. He was fairly young, in his mid-20s, “dressed neat, clean-shaven and (with) a good haircut,” the 76-year-old later told police, and he asked the price on the 1996 Mercedes for sale in the driveway…
It was a really nice day yesterday, wasn’t it? Not too windy, not too hot, not too humid. Perfect Sunday weather, all the better to sit in the park, feel the fresh air, and, with any luck, not have some asshole come along and kick you in the face. See…
Typically, Dallas saves its wilder side for the weekend. That’s when, once the booze and drugs are flowing in earnest, the weird crimes tend to happen. But the weekend arrived early, with police reporting an armed diaper bag robbery, a Craigslist heist and a low-budget movie production scaring the bejesus…
Updated below. Original story, 10:05 a.m.: An EMT and incident commander with West Emergency Medical Services was arrested early this morning on charges of possessing a “destructive device,” multiple media outlets are reporting. Bryce Reed, 31, is in federal custody. There are two different interpretations of the arrest being presented:…
It was always one of the pieces in Eric Williams’ story that didn’t quite fit a narrative with an otherwise tidy motive for murder. The disgraced former justice of the peace had appealed his April 2012 conviction on burglary charges, prosecuted vigorously by slain Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland…
It wasn’t quite heard around the world, but the shot fired by The Liberator, the plastic gun that University of Texas law student Cody Wilson designed and fabricated using a 3-D printer, was witnessed by a lot of people. It proved beyond a doubt that the gun works. What people…
Village Fair is Dallas ISD’s alternative school, where the district sends those students deemed too disruptive or unruly to function in mainstream classrooms. That it experiences its share of discipline problems is a given. But even there, the iron rule of Texas education applies: Don’t mess with the STAAR test…
The Dallas Police Department still hasn’t given a very satisfying explanation for why it took officers so long to respond to an armed robbery and shooting at a West Dallas grocery on Sunday. Partly it was the 911 caller’s heavy accent, partly that officers were working what they thought was…
Schramms Ammo & Weapons plies its trade out of a Sunnyvale storefront, but the official headquarters listed on state incorporation papers is owner Jeffrey Schramm’s home on Park Chase Circle in Mesquite. It probably goes without saying that Schramm takes his work home with him and keeps a small arsenal…
On Sunday night, four men tried to rob Pepe’s Grocery on Bernal Drive in West Dallas. One of them was carrying an assault rifle, but the manager of the closed store drew first, hitting his target with two shots from his .38. The would-be robbers fled, leaving a trail of…
Last Thursday, Alicia Moore’s friends and family members braved the rain for a somber vigil to call for the 16-year-old’s killer to step forward. The murderer’s identity was a mystery. She had last been seen alive on the afternoon of November 2 stepping off the school bus near her family’s…
