DALLAS — As the Dallas Police Department (DPD) announces a new emphasis on patrols in Deep Ellum, a grieving family mourns that it comes too late for them.
"I'm numb. I'm really angry. I'm really angry, "Angelaka Johnson-Fisher said after the early Saturday morning shooting death of her 20-year-old son Aareon Johnson, also known as "AJ".
Clutching photographs on a bench outside a southern Dallas funeral home, Johnson-Fisher and her son's grandmother Traci Holmes pleaded for police to find AJ's killer.
"He just moved out on his own," Holmes said. "He was trying to figure life out like every 20 year old. He didn't deserve this."
"I just want answers. I want to know. I want to know the truth," Johnson-Fisher said. "I want to know what, when and why."
"We loved AJ," she said. "Everyone loved AJ."
AJ was gunned down early Saturday morning near Clover Street in Deep Ellum. His body was found a block away near Malcom X and Commerce streets, police said. He'd been shot multiple times.
"He loved his Nana, and his Nana loved him," Holmes said. "My baby was a good kid. He didn't bother nobody and he didn't deserve this, and just, I'm so hurt and I'm so angry. And I don't know if we're ever gonna [sic] be the same. That was Nana's baby."
His death comes as DPD announces a plan to form a unit dedicated solely to focus on the Deep Ellum neighborhood. There have been four deaths in Deep Ellum this year alone.
"What you're also going to see is increased patrol officers walking down our sidewalks, addressing people partying in the parking lots," Dallas City Councilman Jesse Moreno said, of the concentrated effort expected to begin in the fall.
"You're going to see officers who are approaching people who are perhaps drinking on the sidewalks. We want to make sure that we're addressing violent crime, but that we're also addressing quality of life issues that could lead up to something more violent," said Moreno.
"The officers will have a special relationship with the business owners, and we'll be able to identify hey this looks out of place," he continued.
In this latest shooting, DPD has released the above surveillance images of potential suspects in the death of Aareon Johnson.
And a grieving mom, outside that southern Dallas funeral home, asked for a chance to say this:
"I know you guys see this picture circulating everywhere. Somebody knows him," Johnson-Fisher said. "I'm gonna speak to the person who knows him. I know you know him. Turn him in. Tell the detectives. Turn him in. You guys don't have my apologies. I do not forgive you for killing my son. I need answers."
DPD and Deep Ellum, desperately need those answers too.