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Local painter creates intrigue, beauty in portrait

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By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Denton Record-Chronicle on Feb. 14, 2016

Behind the bar at 940’s Kitchen and Cocktails is an oil painting.

The painting depicts a woman with bright red lips set against a smoky background. It’s flanked by colorful bottles of expensive liquors.

The bar’s centerpiece, which shows three perspectives of the unknown woman’s face, is like a memory of another time — a throwback to the great tradition of paintings of beautiful women behind bar counters.

The portrait feels like a modern Mona Lisa. Like Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait, the subject of Daniel McCullagh’s Sight Unseen is shrouded in mystery. Nobody knows the identity of the model or what’s behind the curiosity of her expression — though she looks a little like Michelle Dockery, Lady Mary of Downton Abbey.

Bartender Tyler Jenkins, 26, said much of his clientele asks about the painting. The bar recently held a gallery event featuring McCullagh to give the artist a chance to answer their questions.

“It’s very striking, and the first thing that caught my eye when I came in here to apply,” Jenkins said. “She follows you around the room in a dizzying way.”

Sight Unseen was meant to capture the details that are often lost in motion.

“It’s like when you see a girl out of the corner of your eye and turn to look at her,” he said. “You pick up little pieces of information. Your brain, influenced by your emotions, creates the rest of the image.”

McCullagh said the idea to have the subject turn came to him just after Christmas 2014 while sitting at Paschall Bar talking about art with friends. In the past, he had painted images showing the subject as if it were dripping down and stretching across the canvas.

“Spiraling would give more dimension and depth to her face, emotionally and visually,” he said. “My friends encouraged me to do it.”

McCullagh did not use a model for the painting, he said.

“People tell me that it looks like their friend or family member,” he said. “It could be a real person, but even I’m not sure if it is.”

Working at Jupiter House, McCullagh sees many people every day. Occasionally, he said, someone will come in and look familiar — like a subject of a painting long since finished.

“It will be funny if this woman walks in to get coffee someday and it turns out she’s real,” he said. “Or maybe the face is derived from different people I’ve seen.”

Art critic Bill Marvel, 76, attended the event as a friend of McCullagh’s mother. Marvel said the woman looks curious as she faces forward. Her eyebrows are raised. Marvel argued that the subject is turning away from the viewer; other viewers think she’s turning toward the viewer.

“The painting really left it open to which direction she’s turning,” Marvel said. “If she is turning away, her eyebrows lower, indicating that she’s shy or uninterested. If she’s turning towards us, it indicates that we sparked her interest.”

McCullagh won’t say which way the woman is turning. But, he gave this clue: He did not paint the faces individually; he painted them as if they were one.

The artist would start the brush on the in-focus face and immediately paint the same feature on the next faces, without pulling the brush from the canvas.

“Blurring from one face immediately into the other, instead of painting three distinct faces and blurring them together, makes the movement look a little more organic,” he said.

“It’s the kind of painting that demands you to look at it,” Marvel said. “It does everything a painting like this is supposed to do on a sophisticated level. This is sophisticated bar with sophisticated drinks, and it deserves a sophisticated painting.”

Small but fervent crowd backs Irving mayor’s stance on Islam

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By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Dallas Morning News on Dec. 5, 2015

Attendance at a rally Saturday to support Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne was a little on the low side. The mayor herself didn’t show up.

But the enthusiasm outside City Hall was abundant.

“Most young people don’t know what the good America is,” rally organizer Valerie Villarreal said. “The mayor has given us a taste of that America again, and we don’t want to let that go.”

Van Duyne has been a figure in the public debate over Islam and the treatment of Muslims since rumors of an illegal Shariah court at the Irving Islamic Center began spreading in January.

The rumors, though false, gained popularity after she made the issue of Shariah courts part of a speaking tour.

And since a 14-year-old Muslim was taken into custody in September in Irving ISD for bringing a homemade clock to school, the city that Van Duyne leads has become an international symbol of Islamophobia for many.

Saturday’s rally started as a counterprotest to one planned by Accion America “to speak out against hate and intolerance” in Irving.

That event was rescheduled for next Saturday at the Islamic Center, but the conservative group Overpasses for America followed through with its pro-Van Duyne event.

“We’re just patriotic Americans standing up for America and Irving,” Villarreal said.

Organizers said they’d expected more than 100 people to attend and were disappointed at the turnout, which never reached more than 40.

They blamed police-imposed parking restrictions at City Hall. But officers watching over the rally seemed supportive — encouraging people to stand along Irving Boulevard for better visibility.

Passing cars frequently honked in support, though some drivers did gesture obscenely toward the demonstrators.

McKinney resident Mel Robins, vice president and co-founder of Sons of Liberty Riders, said he believed that support for Van Duyne had been growing.

He was among 14 members of the motorcycle club who attended.

“I’ve been hoping something would happen so that we could come and show support for everything she’s done and what she’s all about,” he said. “We’ve watched the mayor of Irving stand tall and say there isn’t going to be any Shariah law practiced in the city of Irving. That took guts, and we admire that.”

Lewisville ISD special-needs students launch their own comic convention, and it’s drawing notice from heavy hitters

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By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Dallas Morning News on Dec. 17, 2015

When Walter Jimenez visits comic conventions, some of his students always ask him to get autographs for them. Now, he’s giving them a chance to get some signatures in person.

Lewisville ISD students in the Focus on the Future program, which prepares special-needs adults between the ages of 18 and 21 to transition into the world around them, are hosting a comic convention open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Lewisville High School.

Jimenez, a Focus on the Future teacher, said he has two main goals for the Starfish Comic Expo: to teach his students life skills and bridge the gap between the special-needs community and the community at large.

“This isn’t created by special-needs folk for special-needs folk,” Jiminez said. “This is for everyone. We’re just the ones hosting the party.”

The convention got its Starfish name from a brand the students like to use as part of some of their projects. Focus on the Future students also operate the district’s Starfish Cafè restaurant and coffee shop and a T-shirt printing company.

The idea hit Jimenez, who frequents comic conventions, at the end of the last school year. He said his students either didn’t know comic conventions existed or their parents didn’t take them.

“Parents worry how they’ll take care of their special-needs adults at a convention,” he said.

So, Jimenez decided that having his students plan and simulate a real show would be good for them. At the end of the summer, he pitched it to administrators.

Corey Bell, principal of the Purnell Support Center, which houses Focus on the Future, gave the OK.

“What Mr. Jimenez is doing hasn’t been tried,” he said. “It seemed like the right thing to do to support a teacher who stepped out of bounds to find an innovative way to support these students in their adult lives.”

Students have excited the center’s staff by embracing the comic book community in which many other adults engage, Bell said.

Jimenez said he worried the community at large wouldn’t accept the convention — until he landed Brenda Hickey, the creator of My Little Pony comic books. Hickey will attend the event as the guest of honor.

“That gave credence to what we were doing and showed that people in the community actually back what we’re doing,” Jimenez said.

Hickey, who lives in Canada, said she wouldn’t charge the district apart from the cost of her plane ticket. She said she agreed to take part in the Starfish Comic Expo because she understands the importance of people with special needs feeling welcome and at home in their community and fandoms.

“My younger brother, Joe, has Asperger’s syndrome, and had a lot of trouble fitting in at school,” Hickey said. “So now that I’m an adult and am more able to help than when I was a child, I’d like to make others who may feel on the periphery feel comfortable and accepted.”

Hickey said she’s excited to meet the students and to see them enjoy the product of their hard work.

“I’ve been told about all effort they’ve put in to this con[vention],” she said. “So I can’t wait to see them finally see it all come together and to feel that sense of pride in a job well done.”

Hickey will lead a panel on My Lttle Pony characters and creating comic books. She also drew a special print for the show, featuring a starfish as the prominent character.

“She did it for free,” Jimenez said. “It was hard to hold back emotions when she sent this, starfish front and center, since that’s our brand.”

The students went out asked local business managers and owners for donations to help raise money for Hickey’s ticket and other expenses. They also worked at charity events, folded clothes and counted money for local retailers. Now, the costumed students are presenting in local schools, trying to sell tickets.

More celebrities in the comic world responded to Jimenez’s emails once word of the show spread. Most couldn’t make it but were still supportive.

Rob Paulson, the voice of Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, sent a donation and a nice note. Phil LaMarr, the voice of the animated Green Lantern and Samurai Jack, sent a note and signed posters that he personalized to each student.

Michael Carbonaro, host of The Carbonaro Effect, made a video for Jimenez to play during the convention. It encourages the special-needs community to come out in the regular community.

Eddie Medina, who hosts a Star Wars web show from Deep Ellum, will lead a panel discussion on Star Wars. Jimenez purposefully planned the event to occur on the day the new film comes out, he said.

Taffeta Darling will serve as master of ceremonies and host panel discussions on cosplaying. Darling, who is well-known in the world of comics, writes for numerous websites and discusses geek-dom in her YouTube channel FANGIRL. She has also served as a cosplay judge and hosted pop-culture events across the country.

Darling loved the pitch for the Starfish Comic Expo because she has an autistic sister, she said. She hopes the convention will grow in scope and prominence, adding additional days in the future.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all the work the students did pay off,” she said. “There is nothing more gratifying than seeing your hard work go into play. The four hours will go by quickly.”

Every Monday, the students update Darling on the show’s progress by video chat.

“Their costumes all look really great,” she said. “I’ve kind of prowled from afar and answered questions they’ve had about putting costumes together.”

Because of Darling, two cosplay groups have confirmed appearances. Heroic Inner Kids will dress as Avengers and Justice League characters. The DFW Ghostbusters are bringing their crew, with Ghostbusters- and Jurassic Park-themed cars. Guests can take pictures with them and ask them questions.

The expo will also feature two local artists and Hickey selling prints “like at a real ComicCon,” Jimenez said. There will also be three vendor booths: a comic book store, a vintage toy store and a store that sells cosplay gear.

Mike Debalfo, a Phoenix-based comic book artist, donated his Ninja Turtles artwork as prizes for a costume contest.

Print shop students have created a T-shirt for the convention. With three colors, it’s the most intricate they have ever made. Jimenez said he hopes they will sell out.

“We had a slow year with our T-shirt sales last year,” he said. “The more T-shirts we can make, the more practice we give our students. They have to learn how to fill out invoices and tax-exempt forms.”

Jimenez said that selling the shirts particularly benefits nonverbal students who want to communicate more effectively.

Alandria Rivera, 20, said she’s going to dress as Catwoman.

“I talked to schools about it and learned how to sell tickets,” she said. “I like that I got experience doing sales so I can do it on my own after I’m out of the program.”

Shatequa Driver, 20, said she’s dressing as Batwoman for the expo.

“This has been really fun,” she said. “I’ve learned about teamwork and being awesome.”

Parents are getting more involved and asking Jimenez to tell them more about the comic culture because their children love it and being a part of a community.

“One student found a live-action roleplaying group to join,” Jimenez said. “Now they get to do things they always loved with people their own ages who don’t have disabilities.”

Southern Denton County/Northwest Dallas County editor Adam Schrader can be reached at 214-773-8188.

IF YOU GO

1098 W. Main St. in Lewisville. Tickets are $7 if you buy through the program and $11 if purchased online. For more information, visit patera22.wix.com/starfishcomicexpo.

LifeLine Shelter for Families helps homeless families when financial struggles hit

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By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Dallas Morning News on Jan. 7, 2016

Jaycilva Watson said her financial troubles began in 2014 after a doctor told her she needed a hysterectomy.

Watson, a single mother, had just started teaching at Umphrey Lee Elementary School in the Red Bird area. She wasn’t eligible for family leave, she said, and had cut short-term disability from her health insurance plan.

Dallas ISD placed her on unpaid medical leave. Without an income, rent and medical expenses quickly burned through her savings. She turned to her mother for help, but she had her own household to support.

Having earned a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate, Watson never dreamed one bad situation would cause her such financial distress.

“I never expected I’d have to apply for handouts,” Watson said. “I checked off all the right boxes. I got the degree. It was embarrassing and humbling.”

Watson was introduced to LifeLine Shelter for Families, one of 23 agencies funded by The Dallas Morning News Charities, when she approached her apartment complex about her inability to pay rent. While not a physical shelter, the agency provides assistance with housing for homeless families with children attending schools in Grand Prairie ISD, as well as classes in stress management and personal finance.

“The first time I sat down with LifeLine was embarrassing, but they were nice and comforting,” Watson said.

LifeLine paid three months of her rent and taught her personal finance.

After a summer-long job search, Watson found a teaching position at the La Academia de Estrellas Charter School in West Oak Cliff. The job came with higher pay.

“It’s weird to say, but now looking back, all of this was a positive, life-changing experience for me,” said Watson, 36. “I learned patience and humility and now have a great job.”

Kevin Boley Jr., 36, is a single father of two and a former client of LifeLine. Three years ago, he lost his home and moved in with a relative.

He told a guidance counselor at his daughter’s school that he had problems caring for his children.

“I almost gave up my kids,” Boley said. “I didn’t have a high school diploma or a driver’s license, and had warrants for unpaid tickets I got for not having valid insurance. The lady advised me to speak to LifeLine.”

Boley started building custom homes when he was 15 to help his mother feed their large family. When he turned 19, his mother helped him get a job at Kroger because it had better career prospects, he said.

He quickly worked his way up to a manager position. But he returned to home building for more money, working up to lead foreman.

His financial hardships started when his children’s mother left.

“Then the housing market fell and finding work became harder,” he said. “I had problems paying the bills and it snowballed.”

His debt stacked up until he had the security of his own apartment through LifeLine.

“I no longer had to wonder where we would stay,” he said. “If it weren’t for LifeLine and strength from God, I probably wouldn’t have my driver’s license or my kids. It makes you feel like you can make it instead of feeling depressed.”

Through another program, Boley worked to pay off his tickets and got his license back. He started working as a driver for Grand Prairie United Charities three years ago.

“I never received any tickets and I pay my insurance regularly now,” he said. “The first year I had my driver’s license, I kind of hoped I’d get pulled over so I could prove that I had insurance.”

Now Boley works as Grand Prairie United Charities’ donation coordinator.

His biggest worry now is making sure his children do well in school, and that he has enough money for them to participate in school or extracurricular activities, he said.

Boley said he earned his GED because of LifeLine.

“I was so proud in my graduation ceremony, with my cap and gown,” he said. “I watched everyone else go through prom and graduation and never thought I would have any of that. I teach my kids that there’s nothing more important than education. I’m even working on going back to school.”

Gail Wills, the president of LifeLine, said it only takes a hiccup in everyday life to cause financial distress.

“What for most people would become just a nuisance ends up becoming a crisis for them,” she said. “There’s just no safety net and they don’t have the support of family or friends.”

Part of the agency’s success is because of its narrow mission, she said.

“Chronic homelessness, while it’s a huge problem, is not one that LifeLine is designed to solve,” she said. “A homeless child, we can try to help that because it’s probably not chronic homelessness.”

Wills said that even in a good economy, the working poor struggle with poverty.

“A prescription costs $150 you don’t have, even with health insurance. That comes out of your rent money. Then you have late fees on rent,” she said. “Before you know it, you have a problem.”

Angela Giessner, the nonprofit’s founder, said she started the organization in 2003 after noticing that there was a problem with homeless schoolchildren and their families in Grand Prairie ISD.

“Whenever mom and dad are under stress, kids are under stress and don’t perform well,” she said. “Some parents were so stressed they were about to divorce, and this kept them together.”

Giessner said that many like Watson and Boley don’t seek help because of embarrassment.

“They want to keep their dignity,” she said. “With us, nobody needs to know they’re on our program. The kids don’t need to be embarrassed at school. That does a lot for their self-worth and motivation to improve their situations.”

Southern Denton County/Northwest Dallas County editor Adam Schrader can be reached at 214-773-8188. Twitter: @schrader_adam.

MORE INFO

For more information on LifeLine Shelter For Families, visit lifelineshelter.org.

At Dallas gun show, there’s little to like about Obama order

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By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Dallas Morning News on Jan. 9, 2016

Few issues stir people up as much these days as the argument over guns and gun rights.

But inside Dallas Market Center on Saturday, there was wide agreement on one thing: President Barack Obama’s new executive order calling for tighter restrictions on buying and selling guns is a non-starter.

That should come as little surprise since the center was home to this weekend’s Dallas Gun and Knife Show, a massive event centered on the very thing the president wants to further regulate.

But even at a gun show, people have strongly different views on just how much freedom Americans should have with guns.

Fort Worth resident Greg Hoffmann, 44, said he doesn’t like the vagueness of the executive order, particularly on increasing the reporting of mental health issues.

“We can all agree that anyone who has been deemed incompetent to own a firearm shouldn’t be allowed to, but that law is already in place,” he said. “My concern is how far he can go with it. Does that mean no one who is on an [antidepressant] can own a firearm?”

The proposed executive action could also come in conflict with Texas’ new open carry law.

On Friday, USA Today reported that visitors to one of Texas’ 10 state mental health hospitals will be allowed to openly carry weapons into the facilities but employees and patients will still be barred from bringing weapons. Texas law bans state agencies from posting signs telling people they cannot carry guns on property.

McKinney resident Philip Weber, 35, attended the gun show in Revolutionary War attire and was quick to take verbal shots at Obama.

“The president does not have the authority to give an executive order when it infringes on the Bill of Rights,” he said. “Our great governor is trying to implement measures to reduce the federal government’s powers.”

Weatherford resident Gerry Walton, 65, thinks more should be done to prevent gun violence, but he said the problem isn’t with background checks.

“Most weapons used in mass shootings are assault weapons purchased legally with background checks,” he said. “Assault weapons are not needed at all and should be banned.”

Walton also said the executive order isn’t a smart move for the Democratic Party.

It “will hurt Hillary Clinton’s chance for the presidency because pro-Second Amendment Democrats will just not vote, vote Republican or vote for Bernie Sanders,” he said.

Walton said the executive order will hurt rural citizens’ “pursuit of entertainment.”

“In the country, all there is to do is hunt and fish, but people get tired of owning the same guns,” he said.

Whitesboro resident Robert William Crowsey brought a weapon to sell at the gun show.

“Some people are just selling a gun occasionally, like me, to improve on their collection,” he said. “Now I have to go through the federal government and pay an extra charge to get an ATF license to sell a gun.”

Jimmy Brooks, 54, disagreed with Walton’s point that assault weapons should be banned.

“It wouldn’t take long before you wouldn’t be allowed to sell any weapons,” he said. “A knife or a BB gun can be called an assault weapon if they’re used to assault someone.”

Brad Yates, 30, said it was his first time attending a gun show. He hoped to sell his grandfather’s World War II rifle and expand his views on gun control laws. But the event left him feeling more ambivalent.

“Now I can better understand both sides of the aisle as to why some parties would want to make new gun restriction laws and why not imposing gun restrictions is vital for the livelihood of some of these gun dealers,” he said.

Bronx man gunned down in playground, relative of rapper Rob Base, was one week away from dental assistant school graduation

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By ADAM SCHRADER, THOMAS TRACY and LARRY MCSHANE
Published in The New York Daily News on July 2, 2016

Ryan Ginyard and his dreams died barely a week before his graduation.

The 24-year-old relative of hip-hop legend Rob Base was delivering tickets for the big event to a lifelong friend when he was mortally wounded in a Bronx playground, police sources said.

Ginyard, an aspiring dental assistant, was set to graduate this coming Friday from The New York School for Medical and Dental Assistants in Queens.

His parents were instead planning a funeral Saturday for the one-time high school basketball star with a big heart and boundless energy.

“He was funny,” his teary mom Lori Ginyard told the Daily News. “Everyone loved him. He wasn’t the type of person to be out there fooling around … He was just a fun-loving person.”

The killer in the Mount Hope Playground shooting remained on the loose, and sources said the gunman’s target and motive in the Wednesday night shooting remained unclear.

Lori Ginyard said she saw her wounded son loaded into an ambulance just 10 minutes after Ryan left their Bronx apartment around to meet with his friend Anthony Castillo.

Earlier in the day, the young man came home carrying his outfit for graduation.

Ryan was about to hand Castillo the graduation tickets when the gunfire erupted near the basketball court, police sources said.

Ginyard was struck once in the stomach in the 9:15 p.m. shooting, and died about five hours later on the operating table at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said.

The victim was able to give his version of the shooting to cops before his death, the sources said.

Rapper Rob Base, best known for the 1998 hit “It Takes Two,” was among the family members keeping a grim vigil at the Bronx hospital.

According to police, Castillo was affiliated with the Dub City Gang and survived a 2011 shooting.

While there were several people in the park when the shooting started, no one actually saw the suspect in the chaos, police sources said. Cops found two .9-mm casings at the scene.

“The streets are crazy,” said Castillo’s mother. “How do they even get these guns? I can’t believe someone did this to him. He told me just last week how he wanted me to go to his graduation.”

EXCLUSIVE: Daily News reader sends bottle of perfume to 80-year-old Brooklyn woman whose favorite scent was swiped at gunpoint during home invasion

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By MARY MCDONNELL, ADAM SCHRADER and LARRY MCSHANE
Published in The New York Daily News on July 3, 2016

Mugging victim Maria Lugo’s apartment smells a little less like fear.

The 80-year-old woman, who lost her television, $300 cash and her favorite perfume during a June 23 armed robbery, cried Saturday after a Daily News reader sent her a brand new bottle of Chanel Chance.

“Thank you to the people that gave me this gift,” said the appreciative Brooklyn grandmom. “Thank you so much. This means that there are good people on the streets that have hearts big enough to feel bad about an old lady like me.”

Lugo said she was still horribly shaken by the Sumner House robbery where three men pushed their way into her apartment at gunpoint.

The senior citizen was shoved face-down to the floor of her sixth-floor kitchen as the terrifying trio ransacked the Bedford-Stuyvesant home that she shares with her daughter and grandson.

Donor Kim Waters, 35, of the Upper West Side, said the sight of the diminutive Lugo’s picture in The News brought back memories of her late 103-year-old aunt.

“She passed away in December,” Waters said. “She was my heart. I had this woman in my life for so long, so when I read this story I was totally heartbroken. … I hope this bottle brings her some happiness.”

Waters sent along a handwritten note explaining her motivation and signed, “With scented love.”

 

Family and friends honor slain Dallas officers Brent Thompson and Patrick Zamarripa with candlelight vigils

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By ADAM SCHRADER, NANCY DILLON and NICOLE HENSLEY
Published in The New York Daily News on July 11, 2016

Candlelight vigils in Texas paid tribute to the officers slain in the Dallas sniper attack, with one officer remembered for his love of family and duty and another for relentless heroism.

DART officer Brent Thompson, 43, was remembered Sunday evening by his brother, Darrell Thompson, as a beloved father to six adult children.

“He put himself in harm’s way to protect and save the lives of his fellow officers and the citizens of Dallas,” said Thompson, speaking to hundreds of people, including his family at Coriscana High School.

A procession of police cruisers and motorcycles escorted Thompson’s body to a funeral home 55 miles south of Dallas in his hometown of Coriscana, KDFW-TV reported.

“He is a hero, but our family already knew that,” Darrell Thompson said.

He recalled his brother calling him all the way from Iraq while working as a private military contractor — just to check on Darrell’s newborn daughter, who was undergoing heart surgery.

He had no news for Brent, but from thousands of miles away, Brent said “Don’t worry. She’s a Thompson. She’ll be fine.”

“He was in a hostile land trying to comfort me. Hero,” the grieving brother added.

In Fort Worth, another candlelight vigil welcomed a diverse crowd of leather-clad law enforcement bikers with the Iron Pigs motorcycle club and members of the All Saints Catholic Church to celebrate Dallas police Officer Patrick Zamarripa’s life.

The five-year law enforcement veteran and Naval veteran was described by his police superiors in Dallas Police Department as an “outstanding officer,” a title his aunt, Lanette Martinez, explained was exemplified through his work until his death on Thursday — one of the five officers killed while patrolling a Black Lives Matter march through downtown Dallas.

Recalling an anecdote from a 9 a.m. service from All Saint on Sunday, Martinez said her 32-year-old nephew helped a single mother and her four children feel safe after they bought a foreclosed home with a troubled past.

“She moved in and come to find out that home was owned by drug dealers,” Martinez told the primarily Hispanic congregation.

“All day and all night, people were coming and looking for drugs and the guy. Finally she made a call and Patrick happened to get that call. He went out. He didn’t go one night, he didn’t go two nights, he didn’t go three nights. He went as many times as he could for so many months up until Thursday to check on this woman and her children.”

“That’s the kind of police officer Patrick was,” she added.

A priest at the Fort Worth church comforted Zamarripa’s father, Rick, with an embrace as his the officer’s mother, Valerie, cried alongside during Holy Communion. The distraught parents quickly left the service after the priest prayed for the couple.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price also spoke at the evening vigil and described the Zamarripa family as “pillars” of their community. She offered a stern warning to those that listened.

“This is a time where if we’re not careful, we’ll harden our hearts and let hatred take hold,” Price said. “We cannot do that. Fort Worth is not that kind of community.”

Zamarripa is survived by a wife, 2-year-old son and 10-month-old stepson.

 

Dallas cop shooter Micah Johnson purchased AK-47 in Target parking lot in 2014

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By ADAM SCHRADER, JOSEPH STEPANSKY and LARRY MCSHANE
Published in The New York Daily News on July 12, 2016

Micah Johnson never balked at the $600 asking price for an AK-47 assault rifle. The buy was arranged via Facebook, and consummated in the parking lot of a Target.

Seller Colton Crews forgot about the deal until last week, when ex-Army reservist Johnson killed five Dallas police officers — and federal investigators tracked Crews down.

“I don’t even know how I feel about it right now,” Crews told the Daily News. “I have no idea. It’s awful. It’s just bad.”

Crews, 26, said there was no inkling during their 15-minute November 2014 transaction that Johnson was anything except a military veteran and a solid citizen.

“He didn’t stand out as a nut job. He didn’t stand out as a crazy person at all,” Crews said. “He stood out as just another guy. And he was U.S. service, so he was like your first pick when you’re selling a gun to somebody.”

While the AK-47 sale shows how easy it was for Johnson to acquire a killing machine, the semiautomatic weapon wasn’t necessarily the gun Johnson used Thursday when he opened fire on police in downtown Dallas.

Crews specifically asked a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent if his old weapon played a part in the law enforcement carnage.

Alejandro Rodriguez places a candle at a public memorial outside Dallas police headquarters on Friday in memory of the police officers slain and injured in Thursday night’s attack.

“He said, ‘All we can say is it was recovered. We’re just finding out everything we can,’” Crews said. “He didn’t say it was the one he used. I hope to God it wasn’t. I hope I’m not that close to all this.”

Investigators searching Johnson’s home in Mesquite, Tex., uncovered a cache of rifles, ammunition, bombmaking materials and bulletproof vests.

Nineteen months earlier, Johnson met up with Crews in the parking lot of the Target outlet in Carrollton, Tex.

Crews, joined by his stepdad for the gun sale, recalled Johnson as little more than a war veteran interested in getting his hands back on one of the powerful weapons.

“He’s in a black SUV. (We) get out, shake his hand, introduce ourselves in person,” Crews recalled “My stepdad actually gets out, thanks him for his service, and lets us do our thing.”

Johnson told Crews about missing the rifle’s firepower since returning to the states from Afghanistan.

No red flags were raised, no second-guessing ensued. Under Texas law for a private sale, no background check is needed when the seller is not a licensed gun dealer.

“First off, it was my belief he would have passed a background check,” said Crews. “He didn’t seem weird in any way, just a normal guy.”

A short conversation ensued, mostly small talk as Johnson made sure the rifle was in working condition. Crews, who conducted a bit of an online background check on Johnson, felt like he’d made a fair deal with a good guy.

“He seems like he’s 100% on the up and up,” recounted Crews, who said his decision to sell the gun was a simple matter of economics.

“You really wanna know why?” he asked. “To afford plane tickets to go a wedding …. That’s why I sold the gun.

“The wedding was in Mexico, which is why the tickets were so expensive, which is why I needed to start downsizing my collection.”

It wasn’t until this past Friday, when Crews, playing drums with his band Monkey Sphere in San Antonio, ever heard the name Micah Johnson again.

He couldn’t remember the name at all initially. After playing Friday night’s gig, his guitar player asked, “Was his name Micah?”

“And I said, ‘That sounds like it might be it,’” recalled Crews. “And he said, ‘Micah Johnson’ — that sounds even more like it. ’Cause I don’t have a TV in my house.’”

Once the story came together, Crews found himself badly shaken. He says his interest in guns is now gone, and he opted out of a weekend deal to buy a shotgun.

“It’s the fact that I feel partially responsible for all this s— that’s happened,” he said. “That’s it. That’s what it is. … He’s just one guy who bought a gun from me, and he decided to do something completely awful.”

Adam Schrader and Joseph Stepansky reporting from Dallas.