Police believe as many as 100 people — rival gang members among them — may have been involved in the Sunday morning melee that ended with a teenager’s shooting death outside a Carrollton bar.
Carrollton police spokesman Capt. Chris Dobbs said employees at the Westside Bar and Grill had everybody leave around 1:45 a.m. Sunday after things “started getting a little heated inside.” Groups of men and women started fighting as bar denizens poured onto nearby Alabama Street, he said.
According to witnesses, 50 to 100 people were involved.
“A gunshot was heard,” Dobbs said, “and people started scrambling. That’s when the victim was found lying there at the intersection.”
Police said friends of the shooting victim, 17-year-old Carrollton resident Timbaland Crowder, decided not to wait for an ambulance and drove him to Tanner Medical Center themselves. He was pronounced dead upon arrival.
As of noon Sunday, no suspects had been identified or apprehended.
Dobbs said some witnesses suggested that members of the rival Bloods and Crips gangs were involved in the dispute. He said detectives were also investigating a possible connection between the shooting and “large fights” reported Saturday afternoon at a local apartment complex.
“Nothing we have verified yet,” Dobbs said.
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