DALLAS — Seven murders. Five shooting victims injured. Three days.
Dallas homicide detectives are working overtime to solve the crimes that happened in Dallas over the weekend.
The reality of the violence is felt through the tears of Alan Valdez’s girlfriend who sat in the spot where he was shot clutching his picture.
She repeatedly kept asking,”Why?" "Why?!"
Miguel Orozco witnessed a shooter fire at least 15 rounds, killing Valdez and injuring three others.
“At first I thought it was firecrackers because sometimes they play around like that with firecrackers, but once they started running after the shots I knew it was real," Orozco said.
Seven people were shot and killed since Friday across Dallas. Five other people were also shot, including a 7-year-old girl.
“I think it’s a sign of where we are in Dallas, and we have to do something to put a handler on this," former president of the Black Police Association Thomas Glover said. "We have to come up with a comprehensive crime plan."
Glover said he’s worried about the upcoming summer months, which are typically the most violent months of the year.
“The summer months have not started yet, and we are seeing remnants of some of the worst months over the past few years,” Glover said.
The Dallas Police Department is under-staffed and are in need of hundreds of officers to be at full staff. The Dallas Homicide Unit has only 13 detectives. The Gang and Narcotics units are smaller than they were five years ago.
“It’s going to take the city leadership and command staff to put a stop to all this," Glover said.
Police did arrest people in four of the murders, but not the one at Cherrywood Park, police said.