Three people in their late teens and early twenties were shot and killed and a fourth was wounded at a West Dallas house party hosted at a short-term rental property in the early hours of Tuesday morning, in a shooting that sent dozens of partygoers running into the street and left neighbors searching for answers days later. No arrests have been made.
Dallas Police responded at approximately 12:20 a.m. on May 26 to a shooting call in the 3700 block of Vilbig Road near Canada Drive and Bayside Street in West Dallas. Officers arrived to find a chaotic scene with dozens of people fleeing a large two-story house. Inside the residence, which was being used as a short-term rental, officers located three people who had been shot. Two were pronounced dead at the scene. A third was transported to a local hospital where they later died. A fourth victim drove themselves to an area hospital in stable condition.
Witnesses at the scene told investigators that people who were upstairs at the party began firing down at guests who were entering through the lower level of the home. Investigators recovered multiple shell casings outside the rental home. Dallas Police Major Bobbie Epperson, commander of the department’s Crimes Against Persons Division, confirmed all four victims were adults and said a suspect had not been identified.
The three victims killed were identified as Jaiclyn Scott, 20, Journie Griffin, 19, and Jaiden Cooper, 24, who friends said had just turned 24 the same month he was killed. A friend of Cooper, Mimi Stanford, 23, told the Dallas Morning News he was a young man who had his whole life in front of him.
The shooting is drawing renewed attention to the rise of short-term rental properties being used for large parties in Dallas neighborhoods. Surveillance footage captured a separate and unrelated incident at another short-term rental just blocks away on the same night, where neighbors described a party that escalated into a fight before gunshots rang out there as well. The Vilbig Road shooting is the latest in a series of incidents at or near short-term rental properties in the city, renewing calls from residents and city officials for stronger regulation of how those properties can be used.
For neighbors who have lived in the area for decades, the violence felt personal. One neighbor told WFAA he had ridden bicycles in those streets growing up, and said he was told the shooter was upstairs firing down at guests below. Another neighbor, Ivy Gaines, put it plainly: that is just so sad, young kids dying like that, being injured over a party.
As detectives worked the scene in the hours following the shooting, worried family members arrived looking for news. One woman told WFAA she drove to the scene after her 21-year-old grandson stopped answering her calls. She said he attended the kind of parties she had seen promoted on social media and feared he could be among the victims.
Who Were the Victims
Jaiclyn Scott was 20 years old. Journie Griffin was 19. Jaiden Cooper had just celebrated his 24th birthday this month, according to friends who remembered him as someone full of potential with a future ahead of him. The fourth victim, who has not been publicly identified, survived and is recovering. All four were young adults who went to a house party in their own city and never expected to be at the center of a homicide investigation before sunrise.
What Dallas Residents Can Do
Short-term rental properties being used for large unauthorized parties have become a recurring public safety concern in Dallas. Residents who notice a short-term rental being used for a large party or any suspicious activity in their neighborhood can report it to Dallas Police by calling 911 for emergencies or 214-671-4268 for non-emergency situations. Tipsters who have information specifically related to this shooting are asked to contact Detective C. Clark at 469-849-3761 or cody.clark@dallaspolice.gov. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Crime Stoppers at 214-373-8477 or crimestoppers.org.