Dallas shooting altercation at short-term rental Dallas shooting altercation at short-term rental

Dallas police are investigating a shooting that took place late Monday night at a VRBO property in South Dallas, leaving three men wounded by gunfire and a fourth hospitalized with related injuries

DALLAS – Dallas police are investigating a shooting that took place late Monday night at a short-term rental property in South Dallas, leaving three men wounded by gunfire and a fourth hospitalized with related injuries.

Shootings at short-term rental injure 4

What we know:

Police responded to the 5400 block of Bexar Street just before midnight Monday following reports of a disturbance and gunfire.

Officers found the first victim at the scene suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg. After he was taken to a local hospital, two other men arrived at the same facility. One had been shot in the leg and the other in the chest. A fourth victim arrived about an hour later seeking treatment for unspecified injuries related to the incident.

Investigators determined the shooting stemmed from an altercation among acquaintances at a Vrbo property. All four men are expected to survive.

Police confirmed that two of the wounded men are considered suspects in the shooting and are expected to face criminal charges upon their release from the hospital.

The four people shot at the Dallas short-term rental are at the hospital, and they are expected to survive their injuries. 

Neighbors tell us that parties and traffic at the house increase based on the season.

South Dallas Shooting (Terry Van Sickle)

What we don’t know:

The cause of the argument that led to the shooting and the identities of those involved have not yet been released by police.

Neighbors and the short-term rental debate

Local perspective:

Dallas police placed more than seventeen evidence markers out in front of a Vrbo short-term rental early on Tuesday morning. 

The three-bedroom rental on the 5400 block of Bexar Street was advertised on the platform as being able to sleep 10 people near Fair Park, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, and the Cotton Bowl.

Fight over regulation

Big picture view:

David Schwarte is co-founder of the Texas Neighborhood Coalition. He successfully helped the City of Arlington get a ban on short term rentals in residential neighborhoods, except for those homes in the entertainment district. The ban has held up in court.

“So, this tragic incident just underscores the problem that, violence in short-term rentals is endemic, it’s unavoidable,” said Schwarte. “This incident really underscores, I think, the necessity for allowing the City of Dallas to begin to enforce the short-term rental regulations that it adopted in 2023.”

Shortly after it was passed, the short-term rental alliance challenged Dallas’ ordinance with a temporary injunction to keep the city from enforcing the ordinance until there is a trial to determine its merits. 

The city recently appealed a ruling in favor of short-term rental operators to the Texas Supreme Court. 

The legal challenge

What they’re saying:

David Coale represents the short-term rental alliance. 

“The Supreme Court, it gets a lot of applications, a lot of petitions. It denies about 90%, give or take, of the petitions that it receives. But the way its review process can begin, if it gets in a petition and it seems interesting to at least one justice, the court can request a response to that petition,” said Coale.

Dallas City Council members have recently discussed that the 2026 World Cup will likely bring a big increase in short-term rentals in the city. 

“In their petition, the city said, we have the World Cup coming, but the Supreme Court moves on its own timetable. Its interest is in the jurisprudence of the state, and not whatever might be coming down the pipeline in the next few months, and so that’s not really going to be a priority for them,” said Coale.

Beyond violence: The ‘quiet killing of community’

Dig deeper:

Schwarte is hoping the supreme court does make it a priority.

“I also stress that this sort of violent behavior is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a threat to neighborhoods,” he said.

He asks what can be as dangerous to a neighborhood as overt gunfire, is the quiet killing of a community. 

“Long-term residents whom neighbors know, trust, and often count as friends are supplanted by a revolving door of strangers,” said Schwarte.

Vrbo response and data

What’s next:

FOX 4 reached out to Vrbo for a response to the quadruple shooting. The platform took the listing down but did not reply to my request for a comment. 

The Texas Neighborhood Coalition says it has documented 543 shootings at short-term rentals in the state since it started tracking them in May 2019. 

The Source: Information in this article comes from police sources at the scene of the shooting.

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