A shooting in the far north Fort Worth neighborhood Sendera Ranch last week has neighbors split over how to lower crime rates in what they say is a violence-wrought suburbia.
Daniel Bryant woke up “quick” Friday morning to 15 gunshots fired around 8:30 a.m. next door. At first, he thought the loud bangs were someone trying to break into his truck, which he said is a prevalent issue in the neighborhood.
Instead, the commotion was gunfire coming from his next door neighbor’s driveway on Zavala Road.
In a video of the incident shared with the Star-Telegram, a red SUV pulls up behind a white sedan parked in his neighbor’s driveway. A person in the SUV rolled down the window, said something to the people in the sedan and drove off. A man jumps out of the sedan and runs after the SUV, firing multiple times.
According to jail records, three people were arrested. Damoni Butler, 18, Davirion Sams, 20, and Walter Frazier, 21, face charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Bryant said his neighbors, Butler and Frazier, have always been nice and well-mannered. He couldn’t believe what had happened until the dust finally settled, and the evidence tape was cleared. Bryant worries his neighbors simply got caught up in the wrong situation.
The gunshots hit a house and vehicle on Santa Rosa Drive, both owned by Robby Carruthers. Carruthers has lived in the neighborhood with his wife and two kids since 2020. He said every year, the crime gets worse. Each year, more houses have been added to the area as well.
According to Fort Worth Crime Data, incidents steadily increased in Sendera Ranch from 88 reported crimes in 2021 to 149 in 2023. The largest reported category in that time frame was theft/larceny. Crime report totals were 145 in 2024 and 116 in 2025. The largest reported category was vandalism in both years.
So far in 2026, there have been 92 crimes reported. There has been at least one case of aggravated assault every year since 2021, which is as far as the Fort Worth Crime Data goes back.
Section 8 housing
Carruthers intends to address the issue head-on.
“I’m going to stand my ground,” Carruthers said. “We’re not leaving. We’re going to force these people to leave. This neighborhood is a good neighborhood. My kid rides his bike to school every day. I’m not leaving. I’m not going to run. The neighborhood is going to stand and fight. We’re not going to let it be taken over and ruined.”
Online, several people have blamed Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) as the problem.
“It certainly makes me worry about where our neighborhood is headed,” one woman posted. “Rumor has it. They allowed section 8 to move in here a couple of years ago and it has not been the same since. In the last two years we’ve had damaged to our home and our personal items. And you certainly don’t sit in your garage after dark anymore with the door up. It makes me sad. I’ve been here nine years. But this situation wasn’t safe for anyone.”
Pointing fingers at Section 8 is not going to lower crime rates, Sendera resident Tristen Robinson said. Though the crime is a problem that needs to be addressed, Robinson said some of her neighbors are using it as an excuse to make racist comments.
After a few kids broke into the neighborhood pool and left a mess a few months ago, Robinson said one man threatened to stand guard at the pool gate and shoot the kids with a bb gun. That’s when she began to worry that the blame game was getting dangerous.
“These things are happening, and it’s terrible and inexcusable,” Robinson said. “But there’s also innocent children, innocent Black people living in this neighborhood who are being lumped into this violence and the crime that’s happening.”
Robinson has begun calling out racial profiling and Section 8 stigmatization when it happens online, but she said it is predominantly met with arguments in the comments.
Using Section 8 housing does not equate to someone being a bad person, Carruthers said. Some of them came to Sendera Ranch to escape bad areas, he said.
“But the people that are causing problems, like these idiot 21-year-old kids that know no repercussions, I don’t feel bad, and they don’t deserve to live here,” he said.
Carruthers is taking the issue to his state and city representatives to ensure solutions are brought forth. The Sendera Homeowners Association is considering bringing Flock cameras into the neighborhood and getting security patrols, Carruthers said.
Robinson doesn’t trust the homeowners association to protect everyone equally. She worries a neighborhood-organized patrol would result in someone calling the police on her younger brother without real reason.
Bryant believes the Section 8 housing and crime is an issue in Sendera Ranch, but he doesn’t know that they are certainly connected. It’s among the reasons he and his wife are considering moving away.
“I don’t know what this world is coming to, you know, in our own front yard,” Bryant said. “I told my wife, that hit pretty close to home right there.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.