Michael Lockhart heard the shots first.
Within minutes, three people lay dead or dying. And eight more had been wounded.
It was late Monday, just before midnight. Many residents in Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood had celebrated the July 4th holiday at the annual ComoFest earlier in the evening. What followed — apparently unrelated to the earlier event — was chaos.
People tried to run to safety, but some didn’t make it. Police and paramedics struggled to get to the victims. Who fired the shots — and why — still was still something of a mystery Tuesday evening.
“By the time I can turn around and look…everybody [is] running and I see people running,” said Lockhart, who is with LEGACY Lake Como, which had helped organize ComoFest. “I can see the direction the shots come from because I can see…the sparks coming from the gun.”
The 50-year-old Lockhart saw a young woman and man fleeing — until a bullet cut her down.
“She fell…immediately when she was hit,” he recalled.
She’d been shot in the head, but she was still alive. Lockhart went to help — calling 9-1-1 as the other man tried to stop the bleeding.
“We were scared to move her because it was a head injury,” Lockhart said. The 9-1-1 dispatchers tried to get paramedics to the stricken women. Lockhart said they were having trouble getting into the area with so many people fleeing.
Lockhart and her companion tried to keep her airway open — they worried she’d choke on her own tongue.
After what seemed like a very long time to Lockhart, police in riot gear approached and then carried her to an ambulance.
Lockhart said he isn’t sure of her name — it all happened so fast — but he learned later that the woman died.
“That’s somebody’s baby girl,” Lockhart said. “I have a daughter.
"So it just kind of hits home that your baby goes out to try to enjoy herself with family and friends and just ends up shot over nothing that she did, nothing she involved with — just kids with guns.”
Legacy Lake Como, the group Lockhart works with, mentors young people and helps organize ComoFest. He said it’s a safe and family-friendly event — it started two years ago to counter neighborhood violence.
Lockhart said shootings are too common in Fort Worth.
"They don’t understand that if you pull that trigger you destroying families, you['re] destroying bloodlines, you['re] destroying a generation of a family tree."
Got a tip? Christopher Connelly is KERA's One Crisis Away Reporter, exploring life on the financial edge. Email Christopher atcconnelly@kera.org.You can follow Christopher on Twitter @hithisischris.
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