FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth police said they’re reaching out to businesses in the city’s West 7th entertainment district to discuss safety and security after a TCU student was killed in the area early Friday morning.
According to a police arrest warrant, 21-year-old Matthew Purdy shot and killed TCU junior Wes Smith around 1 a.m. Friday morning as Smith stood on the sidewalk. Police called it a random act of violence with no clear motive.
This is something that was senseless,” Fort Worth Police Department spokesperson Officer Tracy Carter said. “This is something that shouldn’t have happened.”
Emil Bragdon owns five bars in the West 7th district including "Your Mom’s House," which is next to where the killing happened on Bledsoe Street.
“To see a young life like that lost. It’s disgusting,” Bragdon said. “Obviously I was mortified, man. You never know. You’re scared for people you know, your staff.”
Before the deadly shooting, there were already increasing debates about the area’s safety, and it has drawn comparisons to Dallas’ Deep Ellum which underwent a crime reduction plan starting last year after repeated violent incidents.
“There’s nothing more the police could have done to stop a situation like that,” Bragdon said. “The guy literally walked up, emptied his gun and that was it. How do you stop that?”
In the last year, Fort Worth police have increased staffing on a direct response unit which patrols the area along with a bike patrol team.
“This is something again that’s kind of touched us all,” Carter said. “We want West 7th to be a place where people can go and have fun. That’s why it was built. We’re going to make sure it’s safe.”
Police said they were in the area at the time of the shooting. According to the arrest warrant, officers heard gunshots.
Bragdon said security camera video shows them arriving in less than one minute.
Police say Purdy hit a nearby witness with his gun before they arrested him in a parking lot less than a quarter-mile away. He allegedly told officers he only stopped firing because he ran out of ammunition.
“We just want to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Carter said. “No young person should lose their life going to have a good time in one of our best places to go in Fort Worth.”
In a tweeted statement, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said Smith, who walked onto TCU’s football team his freshman year, was her son’s middle school football coach. She called the death a “tragic setback” for efforts to improve security in the effort.
“When you have that many people in that tight of an area over there, it gets really hard to manage it,” Crockett Row co-president Moody Younger said.
Younger’s company owns and manages the Crockett Row strip neighboring the blocks of several dozen bars. City and community leaders have been discussing changing zoning to limit the number of bars in the area.
Younger praised police efforts but believes the concentration of bars should be addressed.
“I don’t think bars are an issue by themselves. I think it’s the number of bars back there and they continue to add to it,” he said. “The alcohol and everyone rolling out of there at 2 or 3 a.m. creates problems.”
“It was not driven by any of the businesses,” Bragdon said. “It was literally a psychopath with a weapon.”
Carter said while police wouldn’t reveal tactics they plan to talk to businesses and bars about possible solutions. Bragdon said he spent Monday morning on the phone with police.
“If we don’t work together, there’s no way we can get better at our jobs,” Carter said.
“Random acts of violence happen,” Younger said. “They can happen in really good areas and this is a good area.”