Cherie Jeffery speaks during funeral services for her son, Dallas police Officer Darron Burks, at Watermark Community Church on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Dallas. Burks was shot and killed in Oak Cliff on Aug. 29.
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
The mother of Dallas police Officer Darron Burks has sued the parents of the man accused of killing him in late August 2024, along with a north Oak Cliff pawn shop she alleges sold the handgun and ammunition used in the shooting.
The lawsuit, filed March 17 in a Dallas County district court by Cherie Jeffery, comes more than a year and a half after Burks, 46, was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol vehicle outside a community center in east Oak Cliff.
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The suit alleges the parents of Corey Cobb‑Bey, the man police say fatally shot Burks, were negligent because they failed to secure firearms despite their son’s “erratic and violent” behavior, including killing and burying a dog in his backyard, fighting with others and being fired from his job.
Cobb-Bey’s father, Emery Cobb, did not comment on the suit when reached Wednesday morning. Messages seeking comment from the pawn shop, LG’s Million Dollar Pawn & Gun, were not returned.
Police said after Burks was shot, Cobb-Bey fired at two responding officers, then fled in his vehicle. Officers pursued Cobb-Bey into Lewisville, where he got out of his vehicle carrying a firearm and was fatally shot by Dallas officers. A grand jury cleared the officers who fired their weapons.
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Cobb-Bey, 30, lived in a detached dwelling behind his parents’ home in east Oak Cliff. Police records detailing the investigation reviewed by The Dallas Morning News state officers found “rhetoric” in the home relating to the Moorish Science Temple of America, a religious sect that dates to 1913.
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In the weeks after the shooting, The News reviewed hundreds of Cobb-Bey’s public social media posts, YouTube videos and court filings for a criminal case in which he represented himself. Experts who reviewed the materials said they show he espoused a combination of beliefs drawn from fringe Moorish Science groups and elements of sovereign-citizen ideology.
Moorish Science groups, including at least two in the Dallas area, disavowed Cobb-Bey’s actions after the shooting. One of the Dallas groups once hosted him in study meetings in late 2017 and early 2018, the group’s leader told The News.
Days after the shooting, Cobb-Bey’s brother, Ladarrian Brooks, told The News their family was in “complete shock” and expressed condolences to the Burks family, as well as to the surviving officers and their families.
The suit says Cobb-Bey bought the handgun used in the shooting in early July 2024, less than 60 days before Burks’ death, from 24 Hour Pawn, which now does business as LG’s Million Dollar Pawn & Gun.
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The handgun sale violated state and federal law, the suit argues, so the pawn shop is not shielded by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which typically protects gun sellers from civil liability. The suit does not say how the sale broke state and federal laws.
Jeffery has suffered severe and ongoing emotional distress since the shooting, according to the suit, including mental anguish and the lasting loss of companionship and support from her only child.
The suit was assigned to the 193rd District Court, where Judge Bridgett Whitmore presides.