DALLAS, Texas — Federal prosecutors and the Dallas Police Department are flooding Deep Ellum with extra officers and promising tougher federal charges after three shootings in the entertainment district early Sunday left four people dead.
Ryan Raybould, who heads the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, unveiled the effort, called Operation Deep Cover, at a Monday news conference near one of the scenes alongside Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux. It adds uniformed and plainclothes officers to the area. Raybould said crimes in the district handled under the operation will be prosecuted federally, where convicted offenders are more likely to serve their full sentences.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also plans to meet with Dallas police every month to look for ties among violent crime and drug cases that could support racketeering charges, and it will reexamine older cases. Officials did not say what the operation will cost.
The gunfire unfolded over roughly 75 minutes, police said, starting on Elm Street shortly after midnight, moving to Main Street around 1 a.m. and ending on South Crowdus Street a half hour later. About 15 people were wounded. Among the dead, according to county medical examiner records, were Kaniesa Scott, 21, and Unique Elise Benjamin, 28.
No one has been charged in the shootings. Treyveion Demby, 28, who police say pointed a loaded pistol at people in the crowd during the chaos, faces a federal charge of unlawful gun possession by a convicted felon filed by federal prosecutors. Comeaux said about four dozen officers were already working the neighborhood when the gunfire started.
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