One person was killed and three people were wounded by gunfire in four separate shootings within one hour Sunday night across Dallas, according to police.
And three hours later, another person had been killed in another shooting, police said.
The first shooting occurred shortly after 8:45 p.m. in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood.
A man was standing inside by the front door when four men began shooting into the home, according to police. The man was wounded by one of the bullets. Police said it was possibly a drive-by.
The second shooting happened just after 9:10 p.m. in southeast Oak Cliff. A 17-year-old male was shot in the chest, and a suspect was taken into custody, police said.
Police did not know the teen's condition as of late Sunday night.
A woman was shot and killed minutes later in a Walmart parking lot in North Dallas, police said.
Witnesses said they heard multiple gunshots in the parking lot just before 9:30 p.m. and saw people hiding behind their cars to take cover during that shooting. Police are searching for a man who was seen running away from the scene.
Around 9:45 p.m., another woman was shot in the leg in Far East Dallas.
A man with her told police an unidentified man had shot at them while they were in a car.
One person was then shot and killed shortly before 1 a.m. at an east Oak Cliff apartment complex as they were opening an apartment's front door, police at the scene told WFAA.
Those two deaths mean Dallas has had at least 15 homicides in 2020.
In 2019, the city had recorded 209 murders – a death toll that’s about 30% higher than the prior year. It is the highest number since 2005, which had 202 murders, a federally-reported statistic.
That tally does not include all homicides in Dallas. The Dallas Police Department also recorded at least 10 justifiable homicides, which are sent to a grand jury.
There was a 14% increase in robberies and a 19% increase in aggravated assaults in 2019, the statistics show.
City officials are hoping to combat those increases in the new decade, but seem divided over how to do so.
Police Chief Reneé Hall released her violent crime reduction plan to the public at the beginning of the month to mixed reviews.
The 2020 crime plan includes increasing the number of investigators working for the Dallas Police Department, adding civilian analysts and establishing a 100-member violent crime reduction team.
The document was the first written report detailing Hall’s crime-fighting plan during her two-year tenure as chief.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson called the plan "a start."
He said he was pleased to see the chief refer to the crime reduction plan as a "living document" because he has "some concerns that I hope to see addressed in the coming weeks."
The chief’s plan acknowledges the increases in violent crime and sets a goal to reduce all violent crime across the city by 5% this year compared to last year.
"We should strive to reduce homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies to 2018 levels citywide, at least," Johnson said in the statement. "And over the next five years, our aim should be to reduce violent crime back to the historic lows this city saw in 2013 and 2014."
Still, some city officials fear 2020 could be even worse, as a number of homicides and non-fatal shootings, particularly those affecting children, have already captured the public's attention.
Part of 2020's homicide count includes a 1-year-old child who was killed in a targeted shooting while sleeping at his home in the Bonton neighborhood.
Rory Norman's second birthday would have been on Jan. 24.
A 9-year-old girl was seriously injured after a driver opened fire on her family in an apparent road rage incident.
Doctors said she was lucky to survive the shooting.
And major changes have been made to security protocols at events hosted by the Dallas Independent School District following a shooting at a high school basketball game that killed an 18-year-old attending the game.
His family now plans to sue the district for not providing what they say would have been a safe environment for those at a school function.
