Good evening. My name is Neil Loakes.
I'm the police chief here in Fort Worth, TX.
Right now we're in the 2400 block
of Westbury. At about 4:00 PM today.
We received a call about a shooting.
At the water burger behind us.
Officers arrived and located 2 victims.
Both of them were transported
to local hospitals.
Our latest update? The one male,
approximately 16 years old.
And one female, approximately
17 years old, were both shot.
The female is still receiving treatment.
And we're very sad to report
that the 16 year old male
has been confirmed deceased.
This started as a verbal altercation.
Which turned into a physical altercation.
And tragically turned into a shooting.
We're still very,
very early in this investigation.
Detectives have gathered many leads
in the investigation already.
From what we know so far,
all parties involved,
including the victims and the suspects.
Were students at a local high school.
We do believe all the individuals knew
each other and we don't believe there's
any ongoing threat to the public.
Anyone with information?
Maybe you have video?
Maybe, you know, some of the
people who were involved were
asking you to please call.
Please reach out to us.
The number is 817.
3924330 let me say it again
817-392-4330.
This is another example of senseless.
Tragic violence that never had to happen.
And unfortunately,
it involves some very young people
right here in the city of Fort Worth.
We're going to do everything
we can to make sure we bring
those responsible to justice.
We implore you to provide any
information you can that might
assist with this investigation.
They could take a couple of questions
when you first heard of
this involved teenagers.
First, I was mad.
I'm angry. There there is no reason.
For any young person,
a student in high school to lose
their lives at such a young age,
there is no reason for a student
high school to be carrying a gun
and shooting at another student.
But that anger quickly turned to sadness.
We're seeing this across the
country with violent crime.
Unfortunately, we're seeing
right here at home in Fort Worth,
TX, and I take that personally.
Were they students
at Paschal High School?
We're trying to confirm the school
for sure. That's a possibility,
but until we know for sure,
we don't want to get any information
out about the school itself.
Is the shooter in custody, and if not?
Your message to the shooter?
Shooter's not in custody yet.
What I will tell you.
The shooter needs to know.
The justice will be served.
We will do our jobs in cooperation
with the Community to make sure
they are brought to justice.
And what I say to the
shooter is turn yourself in.
You made a bad mistake.
Turn yourself in and
don't make this any worse.
Is there just one suspect
at this point? We're
trying to confirm the number of suspects.
Obviously at least one,
but the number for sure.
We'll get that information
when we can confirm it.
Obviously there are probably other
teenagers in our city carrying guns.
Is there something you could say
to them about conflict resolution?
About making sure that they
don't end up a suspect or
scoop? That's that's a great question.
It seems these days with with some very
young people, teenagers, early 20s.
Conflict resolution always involves a gun.
The lack of importance put on human life,
the sanctity of human life.
Is staggering to me.
What I'd say to those young people is
you have so much more to live for,
and so do those that you
might have a problem with.
But whatever the conflict is,
a gun's not the answer.
Thank you so much for
all coming out tonight.
At all. Were they together as a
group and something went wrong?
Or did it seem like
we do believe that they knew each other?
As far as all the details that surrounded
what brought the incident about,
we'll get that confirmed and give
you more information when we know.
Do you believe that this was
maybe a meet up location?
Like maybe there was an incident
that happened at the school and they
chose to come here to the Whataburger
to meet up and handle the situation
here versus at the high school?
We don't have any information indicating
that at this point you guys have been
meeting a lot with all the other chiefs.
Violent crime has been up
drastically lately. I mean,
what's what's your thoughts on that?
Such such young people
just taking such action.
My thoughts again or?
Anger about the situation,
sadness about the situation,
and a sense of.
Urgency to change things.
I was recently in Austin
with multiple chiefs,
dozens of chiefs from across
Texas talking with our lawmakers.
And Austin, who I can assure
you understand the problem,
are working with us to do everything
we can to make sure the problem
of violence among young people,
old people,
anyone is going to be handled
the way in these two to make
sure we're all safe.
Chief lastly.
If you have an opportunity to say
something to parents who have
teenagers who are carrying guns,
what do you say to them and
their responsibility to make sure
that their children understand?
The brevity of what's happening.
We've got some amazing officers
at the 4th Police Department who
do great work every single day.
We are working day and night 24/7
365 to deal with the violent crime,
but we cannot do it alone.
Research has shown one of the
greatest predictors of success in a
child's life is strong family ties,
strong parents, strong role models.
We're asking parents to get
involved in your child's life.
Find out if there are issues
if your child has a weapon.
Reach out to us to help.
Reach out to someone to actually
talk to that child.
Take the gun away.
Families have to be involved,
communities have to be involved,
we have to be involved.
To really stop this crime,
it's gonna take all of us.
Thank you, chief. I just want to reiterate
8173924330, if anybody has seen anything,
anybody has video footage or your witness,
please call our detectives and give
us that useful beneficial information.
Again, thanks to all of our media partners.
They're here today. Thank you, guys.