One of the men accused in a chaotic shooting at a Red Bird shopping center that left one dead and another injured said he was bullied and disrespected before opening fire, severely wounding one man and narrowly missing two other people, including a child, with stray gunfire.
Cameron Cooks faces three counts of aggravated assault stemming from the shooting last Friday at a shopping center off Westmoreland Avenue. The man Cooks is accused of shooting, Jacory Simpson, is also accused of shooting Donavon Jones, leading to Jones’ death.
Police responded to a Wings and More restaurant shortly before 4 p.m. Friday. They found Simpson slumped against a table near the restaurant’s kitchen. He was shot several times, with one of the bullets nearly severing his hand from his left wrist, according to court records.
Before Simpson was taken to the hospital, he told officers a man named Cameron had shot him, according to police. A handgun was found inside the restaurant.
A witness called 911 and said she saw the man who shot Simpson flee in a white Mercedes. The witness followed the car for several miles before losing track of it. Police eventually tracked it to a home in DeSoto that they surrounded. Cooks walked out of the house and told police he was the one they were looking for, according to court records.
Inside the home, police found a purple AR-15-style rifle, according to court documents.
During an interview with police, Cooks said Simpson had disrespected him. The details of what Simpson said to Cooks were not included in the affidavit.
After shooting Simpson, Cooks fled in a car and called his mother, telling her he was “tired of the bullying.”
Rounds fired by Cooks entered a nearby occupied store and an apartment, nearly striking a 12-year-old, police said.
While reviewing security footage, police said they also saw Simpson shoot Jones. Details of the shooting involving Jones were not immediately available; Simpson remains in the hospital and Dallas police have said he’ll face a murder charge once he is released.
The day after the shooting, while a crowd was gathered near the scene, a car drove by and a passenger fired on the crowd, leading to another shootout and Dallas’ fourth mass shooting this year.
Four people were wounded by gunfire. Nobody has been arrested in that case, and its exact relation to the previous day’s shootings is unknown.
