A suspect is in custody after a shooting wounded three people at the State Fair of Texas on Saturday night.
via Dallas Morning News:
Dallas police said a suspect was in custody just after 8 p.m., around the same time the State Fair said on social media that Fair Park was being evacuated. The suspect, whom police said was arrested after running from the scene of the shooting, was not identified.
Outside the fairgrounds, traffic was gridlocked as families tried to find their way back to their vehicles. Clumps of stranded fairgoers waited under trees and on sidewalk curbs as brake lights and police cars flashed.
Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua, whose district includes Fair Park, said in a post on X that he’d been briefed on the situation by City Manager T.C. Broadnax.
Bazaldua said the shooting took place in the food court at The Tower Building and was “sparked from a dispute between two people who knew each other.” Police said one man shot another.
Three people were injured, according to Bazaldua. Their names were not released.
Police said the victims’ injuries weren’t considered life-threatening. Everyone involved in the incident has been identified, police said, and officers recovered a gun at the scene.
Not far from Fair Park, Oscar Macias was waiting outside Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas late Saturday to learn about the condition of a friend who was shot. The victim, a maintenance worker at the fair from the same town in Venezuela as Macias, was shot in the arm, he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, videos posted online showed the chaos unfolding on the fairgrounds as a large number of people ran to seek shelter.
Near the Midway, dozens of people ran in a panic. The group was quiet besides someone gesturing behind repeatedly to go anytime the crowd stopped moving.
As people ran, some screamed for their children, searching for them. Some people ducked behind rides while others kept moving. The area cleared near the southeastern part of the fairgrounds, where a person thanked those nearby and ushered past hurriedly.
Outside the fairgrounds, families with toddlers walked by as the children cried.
Clara Bishop, 20, said she was holding a friend’s phone and bag as her friends got on a UFO ride, then she started yelling for her friends to get off. The doors closed and a sea of people started running outside the ride. Bishop hid under a ride until her friends came.
It was the first time Bishop had been to the fair since she was young.
“I was on the verge of tears,” she said.
Juan Reaves, 52, was making a trip to his car to get more turkey legs for one of his Smokey John’s Bar-B-Que when people started running.
Then came messages from some of his more-than-40 employees, working across six stands throughout the park.
”It was a banner day. Sales were going great,” Reaves said. “But all of that came screeching to a halt.”
All Smokey John’s and Ruth’s Tamale House employees were able to evacuate the fair, Reaves said, although some were allowed to re-enter the stands to clean up.
Reaves said he has not been allowed into the Smokey John’s location in the Tower Building. He said three employees have already let him know they will no longer work the stands at the fair because they don’t feel safe.
”This is so disappointing,” Reaves said. “The fair is one of the best reflections of Dallas.”
The shooting came a year to the day after a report of a shooting at the fair led to chaos at Fair Park. Police later said there was no shooting, and a fair spokeswoman said the pandemonium appeared to be purposely caused by people running through the crowds.
The State Fair’s website says that no weapons are allowed on the fairgrounds but goes on to say the fair “has long allowed Fair attendees with valid handgun licenses to carry their handguns in a concealed manner.” Visitors to the fair walk through what is known as an “open gate system” instead of metal detectors.
DART said its light-rail passengers may experience delays because of the shooting. Additional trains have been added to transport riders away from Fair Park. Shuttle buses are also available to transport passengers to Pearl/Arts District Station.
Bazaldua called for state lawmakers to pass “meaningful gun legislation.”
“It’s one thing to have a right to bear arms, it’s another to have legislation like permit-less carry, that makes it easier for senseless acts of gun violence like this to be carried out in our state,” he said in his post.
Our hearts go out to those affected by yet another senseless shooting in this country.
def not what u wanna see at the top of the ferris wheel at the texas state fair pic.twitter.com/zx8V7p1frh
— awbs ? (@cans0fsoup) October 15, 2023
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