Duncanville has a gun problem — and the numbers are hard to ignore. Over the past several years, this mid-sized Dallas suburb has been rattled by a string of shootings that range from late-night violence outside a bowling alley to a gunman opening fire inside a summer camp packed with hundreds of children.
The incidents, spread across different locations and circumstances, paint a troubling picture of a community grappling with escalating gun violence. Some cases ended in tragedy. Others, almost miraculously, did not. But taken together, they raise a question that Duncanville residents and city officials can’t easily dismiss: What is happening on these streets?
A Night at the Bowling Alley Turns Deadly
The most recent high-profile case unfolded around midnight along South Main Street near West Wheatland Road, just outside the Red Bird Lanes bowling alley. One unidentified man was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. A second victim survived, though in serious condition. It was the kind of scene that turns an ordinary Friday night into something no one in the parking lot will forget.
Witnesses pointed investigators toward a suspect almost immediately. Police set up a perimeter, deployed a drone, and tracked down Torry Ray Smith just a few blocks from the scene. The believed murder weapon was recovered nearby. Smith is now charged with murder and is being held in jail, with additional charges potentially on the way.
Duncanville Police are still asking for the public’s help. Anyone with information is urged to contact Detective K. Welling at (972) 707-3831 or the Criminal Investigations Division at (972) 780-5037.
When a Gunman Walked Into a Summer Camp
That case is disturbing. This one is something else entirely.
On June 14, 2022, 42-year-old Brandon Keith Ned of Dallas walked through the lobby of the Duncanville Fieldhouse — a recreation complex hosting a summer camp — and fired a round toward a classroom. Inside that building were more than 200 children. Not one of them was hurt.
Officers responded and shot and killed Ned at the scene. As one account noted, it was a “fortunate situation when you consider that none of the 200 kids inside the Fieldhouse were hurt after police said a man entered through the lobby and fired a shot towards one of the classrooms with kids inside.” Fortunate, yes. But the word feels almost inadequate given how close it came to catastrophe.
Subsequent reporting clarified the scope: more than 250 children between the ages of 4 and 14 were inside the Fieldhouse that morning. Staff acted quickly to move kids out of harm’s way. Duncanville Police Chief Gordon didn’t mince words afterward. “Our officers did not hesitate,” he said. “They did what they were trained to do and saved lives.” It’s the kind of statement that only gets made when things could have gone very, very differently.
Dinner Out, Shots Fired
Not every incident involves a stranger with a grudge against the world. Sometimes it’s people who already know each other — and that can make things just as dangerous.
At a Pappadeaux Restaurant in Duncanville, a disturbance inside escalated when three men who knew each other took their argument outside. One of them opened fire near the patio. Two people were shot and hospitalized, both in stable condition. Alicia Davis, who witnessed the chaos firsthand, described it plainly: “Five or six shots, really close together…Chaos. People started screaming, running, crawling. It was crazy,” she told reporters. A busy restaurant patio on what was probably an ordinary evening — until it wasn’t.
A Traffic Light, a Gunshot, a Close Call
On December 29, 2024, at 7:41 PM in the 100 block of East Highway 67 Service Road, a victim sitting at a traffic light was shot by two young male suspects who then fled. The wound, to the arm, was treated as non-life-threatening. Police investigated the incident but the suspects remained at large. Random, quick, brazen — it’s the kind of shooting that doesn’t always make national headlines but leaves a neighborhood on edge for months.
Domestic Violence, a Murder, and a Fire
Then there’s the case that reads like something out of a crime novel, except it isn’t. 63-year-old James Rios is accused of shooting 55-year-old Regina Phillips in the head at her condo on Oriole Boulevard following an argument — and then setting the home on fire. Rios is currently jailed on a $1 million bond. Phillips did not survive. The fire added a layer of calculated destruction to what was already a devastating act of violence, and it underscores just how quickly a domestic dispute can spiral into something irreversible.
A Pattern That Demands Attention
Still, it’s worth stepping back for a moment. These incidents didn’t all happen in the same week, or even the same year. They span a multi-year period across different parts of the city, involving different circumstances, different perpetrators, different victims. Duncanville isn’t in a state of perpetual siege. But that’s not really the point, is it?
The point is that a community of roughly 40,000 people has seen a bowling alley murder, a gunman at a children’s summer camp, a restaurant shooting, a highway ambush, and a domestic homicide followed by arson — all within recent memory. That’s not a statistical blip. That’s a pattern worth taking seriously, and one that local law enforcement, city leaders, and residents are going to have to confront head-on if anything is going to change.
As Duncanville Police Chief Gordon said after officers neutralized the threat at that summer camp two years ago — they did what they were trained to do. The harder question is whether a city should have to train for all of this in the first place.
