Police arrest suspect in Dallas mass shooting with 7 wounded

Good afternoon everyone. I'm Ryan Rabel. I'm the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Thanks again for being here. I want to thank our great partners who are up here with me today, particularly the Dallas Police Department. Chief Hummel is one of my best friends. He's a true crime fighter and his excellent work and ATF's excellent work has led us to today. We also have FBI, DEA, and the U.S. Marshals up here with us today. Three days ago, our office launched Operation Deep Cover. We initiated this operation with a very clear and deliberate mission to deploy coordinated federal and state intelligence to partner with our locals and our state partners and bring federal prosecution tools directly into this vibrant neighborhood to stem the tide of violence in this community. We also are focusing on apprehending and charging those perpetrators who come here to harm others. When we launched this operation on Monday, we hit the ground running. We charged Mr. Demby with pointing a firearm at others, at a crowd. He was our first target. Today, we're here to announce another significant development. As part of our continued, relentless push. Again, this is not just a press conference. We go home. Back to our RV towers and stop. It's relentless. We've officially charged one of the shooters responsible for one of the mass shootings in Deep Ellum on Halloween weekend. The defendant, David Deshawn Yancey, is now facing federal charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm and or ammunition. And this is just the first charge. This is what we got him on in our complaint here, the criminal complaint. So let's talk about what happened that night with Mr. Yancey making a horrible decision. At approximately one o'clock in the morning, the streets of Deep Ellum were packed with hundreds of young people, visitors and residents gathered where we are currently standing and they were just out there to enjoy the Halloween weekend. Surveillance cameras in the area caught Mr. Yancey standing in the crowd and I've watched the video a number of And I want to thank some of the reporting out here. Mr. Rav and others for highlighting that video because the work that you do actually brings people to us. You hold us accountable when you need to hold us accountable, but you're also arms of law enforcement in some way because that video helped solve this crime. So thank you. The videos and the great tips captured Mr. Yancey pulling a handgun from his waistband. Very deliberately, I might add. Premeditated, I might add. You see him cocking a chamber in the round. And then placing it back in his waistband. There is another person, and I'll invite that person to come on in and turn yourself in. You're in the conspiracy. Who sees this all unfold. And instead of saying, please don't do that, stop. They look at each other and it continues. Moments later, as captured on multiple video, Mr. Yancey pulled that handgun out and fired 11 rounds indiscriminately. Into a crowded street, and I want to show you this from the complaint, which you'll have copies of. So here is the photo here of Mr. Yancey just firing off. You can see how many Halloween folks are out there having a great time, and their night turned into a nightmare because of his actions. Eleven rounds. Seven people were struck by gunfire, and it's only by the grace of God and the immediate response of our great first responders. That we are not standing here today talking about seven more funerals, we already have four. Through rapid investigative work, combining surveillance footage, community tips, dedicated detective work by DPD and ATF, the shooter was identified. Knowing the walls are closing in on him, Mr. Yancey did the right thing in that moment and he turned himself in. And again, I credit in some ways, the helpful reporting of all y'all and letting him know that we are coming for him. The defendant is a convicted felon. He was also on felony probation for child endangerment and had an active arrest warrant hanging over his head. Because of these poor decisions, he at least initially only faces the charge of felon in possession of a firearm, which carries at least 15 years, and if he's convicted, he absolutely is getting all the 15 years, but we're still looking. And to reiterate from Monday's press conference, that charge is very serious, but it's just the start for Mr. Yancey. This is precisely why we initiated Operation Deep Cover. Federal prosecution is necessary. Let's talk about Mr. Demby for a moment. Four aggravated robbery convictions. The carousel of justice, he's back out here, possessing a firearm, pointing it at others. Here we have Mr. Yancey, felony conviction, on probation, has a warrant, out for his arrest. This was at the state. He's back out here, causing violence. And I am going through every file with my team related to arrests made by the folks up here in Deep Ellum for the last five years or more. To identify people that have committed crimes that meet the felony thresholds that have a federal nexus. When offenders treat our crowded streets like shooting ranges, we will step in. We will bring the full force of the federal government with our great state and local partners to ensure that these streets are safe. To the seven victims and their families, our prayers are with you as you recover from this tragedy. Our office offers victim Witness, victim assistance services, and we've deployed those resources to help you on your journey to recovery. To the residents and business owners of Deep Ellum, as I emphasized on Monday, our office is fully committed to standing with you to restore public safety to this vibrant, fun community. To the criminals who terrorize our streets, Operation Deep Cover is just getting started. There were a couple other shootings. Those are active investigations. They will meet the full force of the federal government, and I'd invite those folks. If you know who you are, this message is for you. Turn yourself in. Do the right thing. Your only chance at some leniency is to start cooperating on the others there that night that committed violence. This is an open invitation for you to cooperate and to turn yourself in. And if we find you, it's going to be a lot worse. It's still going to be bad, but if we find you, it's going to be very, very bad for you. This message goes out to all those that are coming back into Deep Ellum in the future. There is a big presence in Deep Ellum now. We are looking at everything. We're turning over every rock. Come here, have a great time, and go home. No violence. Thank you, and I will now turn the podium over to Chief Como. Thank you. Look, I appreciate the collaboration and the work that we're doing together. Everyone needs to know this is serious. and we're taking it serious. I want to give major thanks to Trackdown and I'll give you just a little bit more information on what happened. Members of the community saw that, talked to the suspect, and he turned himself in. So it works, it helps. Now, like the U.S. Attorney said, if you were involved in other shootings, trust me, we already have video, we already have pictures. Help yourself. Come talk to us first. Each one of these incidents Had multiple people that's remaining out there. Make it easy on yourself. Come to us because the community believes. The community believes and they're showing that they believe by sending us information, by sending us videos, by sending us pictures. We will find you. We're going to bring you to justice for all the bad things that you did that night. It's only a few people that's causing problems out here. We need you to continue. to work with us to keep everybody safe and that's for the community that's for the business and that's for all of our partners and as we continue to work together we're going to make a difference not only out here in this area but the entire dallas because now we have this collaboration this cooperation from everyone where it's not only here it's throughout the entire city i'm letting you know everyone is on notice like i said last time here's your education here's your awareness If you're a felon, and you're carrying a gun, and you come in contact with a DPD officer, we're going to put federal charges on you. We will put federal charges on you. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for myself, for the chief? No. It was the seven, well, we don't know yet, but the seven that were shot did not die, thank gosh. And so that's what he's connected to, and he's lucky they didn't die. We're still investigating that. Give us some time, but they were actively working that. Thank you. Sorry, go ahead. Sorry. November 3rd. Mr. Rabb, I'm inviting them to turn themselves in. It is going to be bad for them, but it's going to be a lot worse. When we have to arrest them, which we will, they're going to get caught. It's a matter of time. So they can go right now to DBD headquarters and turn themselves in and apologize. We'll put cuffs on them and start proffering and cooperating against others that they know that also are committing acts of violence. I'm not going to get into that, but we have a lot of suspects. And remember. It's not just what happened that night. We are going back in time because I have a belief that folks that committed acts of violence previously that carried firearms when they were prohibited felons are continuing to come into this area, and so more to come on that front. We don't have, at this time, I'm not going to get into that, but I can tell you, based on that photo, it looked pretty indiscriminate to me. He has a couple, one conviction, federal conviction, he was on deferred adjudication for endangering a child, and he had one active arrest warrant. We don't have that specific information and if I did I wouldn't necessarily disclose it this time. Just stay tuned. I'm going to let the chief talk about that. So we had over 40 officers out here on Halloween. There was a lot of police presence out here. We're going to continue to do what we've been doing in Deep Ellen. This was a senseless act that took place but we're going to continue to do what we've been doing and we're going to be out here to protect everyone. Look, we're going to be out here. We are going to shut down a few more streets. We're going to do a few hard closures and soft closures on some more streets. And another big piece of this, we're going to really work on the parking lots. We're going to look at the parking lots. No more loitering in these parking lots. You just can't hang out. If you come into Deep Ellum, go to an establishment, eat, have a cocktail, dance, enjoy yourself. Just hanging out in parking lots, we're not going to allow that. Yep. Anyone else? All right. Thank you. Go ahead, sir. Well, it's a very good question. And yes, there's more videos coming. There will be more videos coming. There's going to be more still pictures coming. This is the time where if you know you were involved, you might want to get in front of it. You might want to just come and tell us who you are because the first one that comes always gets the best deal. We have a clue who we're looking for. Thank you.