A woman is in custody and facing multiple charges after police say she shot at police officers who were trying to remove her injured grandmother and her 2-year-old sibling from a Kennedale apartment on Tuesday.
Police identified the suspect as 17-year-old Jazlyn Renfro.
According to the Kennedale Police Department, officers responded to a call from Renfro bout a welfare check at the Alta Landing Apartments at approximately 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Police described Renfro as distraught. She was threatening to shoot another individual inside the apartment, police said.
Police said when officers arrived, they witnessed the grandmother and a 2-year-old child on the balcony, and they could also hear a disturbance inside the apartment.
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“I looked out of my window, and I seen it was a ton of police,” Rozalyn Chaney said. Chaney lives in the same apartment complex a few feet away from the scene.
According to police, the officers believed there was a threat to the elderly woman and the child and asked them to exit the apartment and come outside to talk with the officers.
While the woman and the child were attempting to walk down a flight of stairs inside the apartment, police said officers heard a gunshot inside.
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"I heard shooting, yelling, and then after that, I pretty much just tried to hide in the house. 'Cause I didn't know what was going on,” Chaney said.
The front door to the apartment then swung open, and officers witnessed the woman slumped over on the floor with a gunshot wound to her back. Police said the woman was holding the child.
“We saw the two cop cars and we saw them yelling up, but we weren't sure who they were talking to,” Bee said. Bee, who did not want to share her full name, said she and her husband were in the middle of clearing out her unit. “We just opened our door when we heard the gunshots actually rang out.”
According to police, as officers tried to pull the child and the victim to safety, Renfro fired multiple shots at the officers from the top of the stairwell with a shotgun, almost striking the victim again, along with the officers and the child.
Police said the officers returned fire. Though the officers’ gunfire did not hit the woman, Renfro did stop firing the shotgun, police said.
According to police, once the victim and child were pulled to safety, the door to the apartment closed and officers retreated and took cover.
A neighbor's cell phone video shows officers treating the victim before loading her onto a stretcher.
Police said a short time later, Renfro exited the apartment with her hands raised and surrendered.
The 17-year-old woman was taken into custody and transported to the Everman City Jail. Rengro faces multiple charges including attempted capital murder, two counts of aggravated assault on a family member with a weapon, and three counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a weapon, police said.
The victim was transported to the Medical Center of Arlington and, at last check, was listed in stable condition.
“Based on the preliminary information gathered at the scene, there is no doubt that the officers placed themselves in harm’s way to protect an innocent woman and a child while taking fire from the suspect who was shooting at them from the top of a stairwell," Kennedale Police Chief Mike Holguin said. "Without the officers' swift and courageous actions, we may have had additional gunshot victims or a homicide. These officers truly acted heroically.”
They said the shooting victim was Renfro's grandmother, and the child was Renfro's sibling. No other names have been released.
According to Kennedale police, per standard protocol in officer-involved shootings, the officers are on paid administrative leave pending the conclusion of an administrative investigation.
The Arlington and Mansfield police departments also assisted.
