DALLAS — One person was killed and five others were injured, one critically, after a shooting early Sunday in Deep Ellum, police said.
Shots from multiple weapons were fired about 12:40 a.m. near the intersection of North Malcolm X Boulevard and Main Street, where an 18-year-old man identified as Kenneth Walker and five other people were shot, police said.
Walker was taken to a hospital, where he later died. A second victim, a 19-year-old who has not been identified, was in critical condition.
The four other victims were women ages 30, 25, 21 and 15, and had injuries that weren’t believed to be life-threatening, police said.
Dallas police said officers responded to the scene in Deep Ellum after they heard gunshots. Once there, police said, officers found 18-year-old Lathaniel Pearson “pointing a gun.”
Pearson dropped the gun and ran from officers but was caught and arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and evading arrest, police said. At the same time, multiple weapons could be heard firing in the area, police said.
It is unclear whether the rounds fired by Pearson were connected to Walker’s death or the injuries to the other five people, according to police.
No further details about the investigation were released.
Walker was the oldest of three, and he cherished his time with his siblings before his death Sunday, said his mother, Jessica Palacios.
Palacios said her son, who went by “KJ,” was known for being smart, sharp and handsome, and she said he was respectable to any adult that he came in contact with.
“KJ was a silent burst of energy,” Palacios said in a text. “It was magnetic. Although his physical being was taken from us prematurely, his beautiful spirit will now flow around us forever.”
Walker had studied business management at Duncanville High School, where he took advanced classes and had developed plans to build his own business empire one day, his loved ones said.
Palacios said that Walker also always tried to provide for his family and he had a wish to give his mother “the best things he could as her son.” He was loved by his entire family and so many others, she added.
“Please just send us prayers,” she said. “We love you, KJ, and we already feel the void your presence once filled.”
