Dallas police are looking for the man wanted in connection to a brazen, unprovoked attack on a bride to be. Investigators are asking for the public’s help finding him. They say he assaulted two people last weekend near Gaston and Good Latimer near Deep Ellum. Meredith Yeomans has the update.
A man has been arrested in connection with a brazen attack on a bride-to-be.
Dallas police said 27-year-old Trevon Woodards was arrested in Bedford on Friday. Woodards faces an aggravated assault charge for alleged attacks near Gaston and Good Latimer near Deep Ellum.
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WATCH HEREWoodards is accused of punching 27-year-old Canada Rinaldi in the face as she and a group of friends walked toward their Uber on Floyd Street just before 2 a.m. Sunday.
Rinaldi, who was in town from Oklahoma for a bachelorette trip ahead of her wedding in April, suffered a broken nose, three broken teeth and needed stitches in her forehead. One of the bridesmaids, Kelly Peralta, said she suffered a black eye and swelling when the man hit her as she tried to help Rinaldi.
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SIGN UP Woodards was identified by police on Friday afternoon, hours before his arrest.
“It’s really relieving,” said Rinaldi.
“It’s a community that has a very passionate response to safety and cares deeply. We have a community safety plan for that reason,” said Stephanie Keller Hudiburg, executive director of the Deep Ellum Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes public safety in the area.
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The Deep Ellum Community Safety Plan includes a SeeSay app where the public can report various issues and problems. Keller Hudiburg said the foundation also has security working around the clock and more than 100 security cameras in and around Deep Ellum.
“We are grateful,” Keller Hudiburg told NBC 5 in response to the arrest.
Three photos of Woodards released by Dallas police Friday show him on a DART platform, a police body camera image of Woodards during an interaction with him at Target on March 21, and a mugshot of Woodards from February after he violated probation on a previous assault charge.
It was recommended that he spend 10 days in jail.
“I don't think that he’s an awful person; I think that he just needs help,” said Rinaldi. “I think he still has to pay the price for what he did.”
At last check, Woodards was being held in the Tarrant County Jail on various assault charges with bonds totaling more than $75,000. It's unclear if Woodards has obtained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
