A study from Texas A&M professor Shrihari Sridhar and alum Muzeeb Shaik supports their observations
By Bianca Rodriguez-Mora
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
Pete’s Cafe is located in the small city of Hutchins, just southeast of Dallas. Workers in the area, law enforcement, council members and locals eat there, topping their chicken fried steaks and omelets with Pete’s signature homemade salsa.
Estella Hernandez, the manager and owner of Pete’s, remembers seeing police cars rush down the Interstate 45 service road on April 15, headed toward Wilmer-Hutchins High School, just six minutes away, to respond to a shooting. No one died, but four students and a teacher were injured. Pete’s had opened just three months earlier.
Following the shooting — the second at the high school in a year — Hernandez said fewer customers came, which she attributes to the anxiety community members may have felt after the shooting.
She, as well as other Hutchins business owners, worry the shooting is making Hutchins less appealing for new residents and aspiring business owners, and is slowing economic growth in Hutchins overall.
Hernandez’s concerns are the reality for many businesses near schools that have experienced shootings. Communities surrounding schools where shootings have occurred often see a decrease in sales at restaurants and grocery stores, as well as a decline in home values, according to researchers.
Aftermath of the shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School is part of Dallas ISD, but it sits just on the outskirts of the city of Hutchins. Business owners nearby say a shooting at the high school in April has hurt their businesses and worry about the long-term economic impact on Hutchins.
A recent study by Texas A&M University professor Shrihari Sridhar and Muzeeb Shaik of Indiana University found that fatal school shootings cause a decrease in customers in nearby restaurants and grocery stores. Nonfatal shootings have a similar impact.
Hernandez estimated she lost about $500 a day the week after the April shooting. If someone had died in the shooting, Hernandez said, she imagines the impacts would’ve been enough to shut down her business.
Sridhar’s and Shaik’s study identified 63 fatal school shootings and tracked the buying habits of businesses around the schools using a database from 2012 through 2019. Beyond the obvious harm to victims and survivors of shootings, the study showed that grocery store spending dropped by about 2%, while restaurant and bar sales dropped by 8%.
Restaurants typically only have a 4% to 5% profit margin, so an 8% drop in sales can have a debilitating impact on small businesses, Sridhar and Shaik said.
Pete’s Cafe opened in January, along with a handful of other businesses, in a newly built shopping center. Hernandez said that businesses are considered “high risk” within the first years of opening, meaning they are at higher risk of closure, even with the smallest impacts.
Hernandez said that even when business drops off, “you still have to have your employees, whether you have customers or not.”
Other businesses in the area also noticed a decline in sales after the shooting. Oswald Mais, the owner of Jamaica Mi Hungry, an eight-minute drive from Wilmer-Hutchins High, said he noticed a 20% decrease in sales shortly after the shooting and hasn’t seen it pick up since. It’s a big hit for a small business, he said.
“In the restaurant business, everything comes very expensive,” Mais said.
Hutchins — with a population of more than 5,700 as of 2023 — is preparing for growth as “higher land prices and lack of supply of buildable land” shift residents from the urban cores of Dallas and Fort Worth, according to its Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in July 2024. The city is building a new City Hall, a new library and a recreation center.
Business owners said they are worried about the long-term effects of the shooting on their businesses and area development.
Hernandez said she is second-guessing her decision to advocate for Pete’s Cafe, part of a franchise, opening in Hutchins. She said she worries the shootings may have given the town a bad reputation.
Other business owners around the area feel similarly. Kortny Hicks opened his chicken wing restaurant, Wings and Vibes on Main Street, at the end of April. Although he feels like his clientele has been steady, the lifelong resident worries about a potential decrease of economic growth in Hutchins.
The violence, Hicks said, “will stop the people from moving into the city, trying to go to their school.”
Sridhar and Shaik said they have found that areas surrounding schools that have had shootings have also seen a decrease in new businesses opening. Home values decreased by about 3% as new home buyers worry about sending their children to those schools, they said. And, if the shootings are fatal or occur more often, the losses increase.
Despite the shooting and subsequent drop in business, Hernandez and Hicks still see the potential for growth in Hutchins. They hope their presence can help create a stronger community.
“I feel like we as business owners should focus on these kids that’s going to school,” Hicks said. “You know, give them more insight, give them more jobs, you know, to help them with their mind. Because you never know what a kid’s going through at all.”
Dallas ISD, to which Wilmer-Hutchins High belongs, is trying to do its part to improve safety. It implemented security changes at Wilmer-Hutchins after the first shooting in April 2024, installing metal detectors at the entrance. However, in the second shooting in April 2025, the shooter entered the school through a side door that someone had opened for him, bypassing the metal detectors.
Shridhar and Shaik emphasized that although additional safety implementations could be helpful for the school, it does not help the wider community feel safe, invested and connected.
As part of their research, the two spoke to business owners who had partnered with schools and local law enforcement. Business owners said this helped the community feel safer, and reassured residents that they are safe within their businesses.
Shaik said hiring students from nearby schools could allow them to have a sense of purpose off campus. Making students feel needed in the community would create a stronger sense of community in general, he said.
“You can scale it up and say that the businesses need to be engaged with the community, in whichever form possible, rather than just going about with things as usual,” Shaik said.
Since she opened Pete’s, Hernandez said she feels incredibly supported by the community and has connected with local law enforcement and Hutchins City Council members. She has hired a number of Wilmer-Hutchins High students and parents.
Despite the two shootings, Hernandez said she still sees the potential for Hutchins to become something greater.
She said while outsiders might assume Hutchins is unsafe, the people who have lived there for years know what the city can offer.
“They’re good people,” Hernandez she said. “I think I really see this town growing. Pete’s has that potential to grow, and I see that here.”
Bianca Rodriguez-Mora is a Breaking News Intern at The Dallas Morning News. She previously interned at D Magazine as an Editorial Intern, working on stories focused on the community in Oak Cliff. She recently graduated from The New School with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Design.
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.
