Extra Cops in Deep Ellum, Four Dead Anyway

Dallas police put more officers into the Deep Ellum entertainment district before Saturday night. Four people died there anyway, and 15 more were wounded in three separate shootings that unfolded over about an hour and 15 minutes. No police officers were injured.

That's the detail the department would probably rather skip. The apparatus showed up early, in force, and the bodies still piled up.

Who Has the Power

Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux stood in front of the scene and admitted the machinery was playing catch-up. "This is a really big scene. It's spread out," he said. "We are interviewing some individuals right now that we have arrested, still trying to figure out exactly how it ties into all the shootings out here." He didn't say how many people were arrested or what they were charged with. He didn't know why the shootings started. He couldn't say whether they were related.

So the state's answer, hours after the gunfire, was custody for an unspecified number of people and no explanation for anyone.

The pattern ran across the country. In Birmingham, Alabama, one person was killed and eight wounded just outside Legion Field after the Magic City Classic, the annual game between Alabama State and Alabama A&M, two historically Black universities. Nearly 70,000 fans attended. Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett said most spectators had already left the stadium property, but the shooting happened nearby, where vendors were set up along Graymont Avenue. Police spokesperson De'Rell Freeman said one person was detained and taken to police headquarters, and "multiple weapons" had been found and secured. The circumstances, officials said, were unclear.

In Newark, Delaware, six people were shot shortly after 11:10 p.m. near the University of Delaware campus, according to Newark Police Lt. Greg D'Elia. Video on social media showed people running for safety. A stretch of Main Street stayed closed for hours. A university spokesperson said updates would be posted online. Hours later, there was no word on the victims' conditions.

Who Gets Crushed

The people on the receiving end weren't executives or officials. They were people out on a Saturday night. A 19-year-old woman was killed early Sunday in Bloomington, Illinois, near Illinois Wesleyan University, and another woman is in critical condition. Six others were hurt, though a statement from city police and the McLean County Coroner's Office didn't make clear whether they were shot. In Fayetteville, Arkansas, six people went to hospitals with gunshot wounds. No arrests. Police pointed to an altercation that came first.

Friday brought two more killings, both inside Spirit Halloween stores. In Fairfield, California, a shooting inside a store at an indoor mall was a targeted attack, police said. Family members told police the 31-year-old woman who died was pregnant. Six others were wounded. In Madison Heights, Michigan, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot Friday afternoon. A second man was assaulted by bystanders as officers took him into custody and ended up hospitalized.

At least six people died in the mass shootings across six cities. Dozens more were wounded.

What They're Calling an Answer

Look at what the institutions offered. Police said investigators are still working. Birmingham's chief said he was "very grateful that more people weren't injured." That's gratitude as strategy, a way of measuring success by what could have been worse. The university in Delaware promised online updates.

None of the officials quoted in the base reporting described anything the people of these neighborhoods could count on beyond the next press conference. The police presence in Deep Ellum was the plan, and the plan produced four funerals.

The reporting contains no account of community-organized response, no neighbors, vendors, or students stepping in to look after each other. What it does contain is the usual sequence: shots fired, sirens, detentions, tape across Main Street, a spokesperson promising to share more later. The people who'd been running for safety were left to sort out the rest themselves.