By Sarah Bahari
The confrontation began over a small fender bender. It ended in gunshots, exchanged along the side of a dark Fort Worth street last August.
A Dallas business owner, 43-year-old Chin “Jin” Shin, was killed and four men arrested.
Seven months after the shooting, a video provided to The Dallas Morning News details how a small crash escalated into gunfire over the span of four minutes. The footage shows Shin firing his weapon, contradicting earlier reports that he never pointed his gun at anyone.
Release of the video comes three days after Tarrant County prosecutors dismissed a murder charge against Markynn West, 29, who fatally shot Jin. Prosecutors said evidence showed West was acting in self-defense.
West’s attorney, Lesa Pamplin, released the video, along with 911 recordings. At a press conference Monday, West said he is relieved and grateful for the surveillance video.
“This was an eye opener for how Black people can get treated without any proof,” West said. “This changed my life.”
The ordeal began early Aug. 15, when Shin’s Jeep rear-ended another vehicle at a stoplight on University Drive in Fort Worth. West said he arrived on the scene shortly after the fender bender to help his friends, who had been hit.
Video shows the group gathered along the side of the road, appearing to argue while occasionally laughing and smiling. Then one of the men punches Shin in the back of the head. Shin eventually walks to his car, retrieves a gun and begins to fire while others run for cover, the video shows.
In 911 call recordings, women can be heard screaming that Shin is shooting at them. West then returns fire.
When officers arrived, they found Shin with gunshot wounds on the east side of the street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Shin, who owned Encore Family Karaoke and DanSungSa Korean restaurant’s Dallas location, was described by friends as a big-hearted and fun-spirited man who dedicated his life to serving others.
In a statement posted to GoFundMe, Shin’s family said they disagreed with the decision by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to not prosecute West.
“It is with great frustration that we have lost an invaluable friend and yet another case of justice unserved in the world and the Asian American community,” the family wrote.
Smaller charges are still pending against others.
Two men — Keeton Sheppard, 34, accused of punching Shin, and Quamon White, 30 — were indicted for assault. Court records show Sheppard was also indicted on a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. A grand jury in March declined to indict Kameron Taylor, 28, on a murder charge.
Since the shooting, West said he clung to normalcy even as the murder charge weighed on him. He continued coaching his 10-year-old son’s football team and is now taking classes to become a barber.
When he learned the charge was being dropped, West said he called his grandmother then barbecued with his family to celebrate.
“It was a surreal moment,” he said. “I felt like people actually started paying attention.”
Pamplin shared a link to a GoFundMe campaign through Twitter. Someone who identified themselves as West’s family member started the drive, according to the GoFundMe page.
Money raised from the campaign, which had a goal of $30,000 as of Monday evening, will be used to recover lost wages and legal fees, according to the post included in the campaign page.
“Even though we will never get the time we lost back, [West] could still use help to take care of his son, pay tuition for barber college, and start a new life,” the post read.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas- at the bottom.
