Fort Worth Police Chief discusses Como mass shooting, initiatives combatting gun violence

Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said the mass shooting in Como this week is ‘absolutely not’ a depiction of the community as a whole.

In an interview with NBC 5 Thursday, Chief Noakes said the department has been speaking with residents in the Como neighborhood this week, as they move forward from the July 3 shooting on Horne Street.

11 people total were shot, and three of the victims were killed.

“Como has worked hard for a lot of years to become one of the most tight-knit, proud communities you’re going to see anywhere. They’re a very vital part of what makes Fort Worth, Fort Worth,” Noakes said Thursday. “Yet, they have been put in the national spotlight about a very negative occurrence that very possibly had nothing to do with people actually from Como.”

The three victims killed in the shooting have been identified as 18-year-old Paul Willis, 18-year-old Gabriella Navarrete, and 22-year-old Cynthia Santos.

A meeting was held Thursday night at the Como Community Center, where residents were able to share their concerns. Press was asked to not film inside the meeting, though Lake Como Planning Committee member Estrus Tucker said the meeting included some family members of the shooting victims.

“We know that people are going to be traumatized, have been traumatized. [It] has a rippling effect. People are hurting, and people are confused,” Tucker said.  “People are just speaking out about their agony, out of their pain. And out of their anger.”

Noakes also attended the meeting Thursday night.

According to the most updated quarterly data from the Fort Worth Police Department, overall violent crime as of June 2023 is down 7.4% compared to June 2022. Murders are down 18% and non-fatal shootings are down about 28% compared to that same frame.

Noakes told NBC 5 that while the downward trend is encouraging, that does not mean their work is done.

“The problem is, we talk about crime going down. We talk about things going better, but we are sitting here talking about a mass shooting. Those things shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence, but that’s where we are,” he said. “We know that despite the fact that the numbers, many are trending in exactly the direction we want them to go, we know we can’t rely on that and just claim victory now. ‘We are done. Job’s over.’ That job will never be done.”

In May 2021, the Fort Worth Police Department launched the initiative “Fort Worth Safe” to combat violent crime after an uptick at the time. The approach is different than traditional policing, as it uses technology and data to help identify where violent crime is most prevalent. From there, resources are strategically focused in those areas.

Overall, Noakes said the initiative has proven to be effective.

“What we did is we took what we did last year and we learned from it. We talked to officers who have been doing the initiatives. We talked to people in the community. We found out what was doing well and maybe what we need to change, do better,” he said. “Some of the things we look at when we talk about changing things: Are our tactics working well? Are they proving as safe as possible for everyone involved? Many there’s an area we focused on that was having a lot of crime in the area, maybe those numbers have come down. Maybe things have improved. Maybe there’s a hotspot — as some would call it — in another area, so we shift our resources to those areas.”

His officers remain committed to making Fort Worth as safe as possible, he said.

“What we don’t want is for people to just shut down and Fort Worth is this dangerous place,” he said. “We don’t like seeing crime anywhere. We know it’s all across the country but what I want people to know is we’re focused right here on what’s going on in Fort Worth.”