Three people were killed and a fourth hurt in a shooting at a West Dallas short-term rental party. The shooter is unknown. Two victims have been identified.
DALLAS, Texas — Three people were killed and a fourth injured early Monday in a shooting at a West Dallas party — one that police say was held inside a short-term rental — leaving neighbors stunned and grieving hours later.
“Why, man, to wake up to things like that. Why?” said Earl D. Thomas, a pastor in the neighborhood.
Dallas Police responded to the 3700 block of Vilbig Road around 12:20 a.m. and found three people who had been shot. Two died at the scene. A third died at the hospital. A fourth victim was transported to a hospital in a private vehicle and was listed in stable condition, according to police.
The shooter remains unknown.
Two of the victims were identified as 20-year-old Jaiclyn Scott and 19-year-old Journie Griffin. The name of the third victim has not been released, pending family notification.
“That’s just so sad. Young kids dying like that, being injured over a party,” said Ivy Gaines, who lives nearby.
As detectives worked the scene, worried family members arrived looking for answers. One woman, who declined to speak on camera, said she drove there after her 21-year-old grandson stopped answering her calls. She said he attends the kind of parties she had seen in videos circulating on social media, and she feared he could be one of the victims.
The shooting is drawing renewed attention to short-term rentals in the area. Surveillance video captured a separate incident at another short-term rental just blocks away, where neighbors described a party that turned into a fight before gunshots rang out.
Thomas said events like these shift how residents feel about short-term rentals in the neighborhood — at least temporarily.
“For a moment, until they feel like they can’t do anything about it,” he said.
Dallas city officials have tried to ban short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods, but that effort remains tied up in court.