Man charged with capital murder in Red Bird neighborhood shooting
Jailon Anderson (Source: Dallas County Jail)
DALLAS - Three days after a fatal shooting in the Red Bird neighborhood in Dallas, a man has been arrested and charged with capital murder.
The shooting happened on Sunday around 11 a.m. on W. Camp Wisdom Rd. just off of I-35 East. When police arrived at the Grand Inn, they found a man in the driver's seat of a Pontiac van, and the front seat passenger had both been shot. The van had crashed into the building.
Both victims were taken to the hospital. The driver died, and the passenger, who has been identified as Thomas Eirls, was treated and released from the hospital. The identity of the man who died has not been released at the time of this report.
During the investigation, detectives learned the suspect, 23-year-old Jailon Anderson, was a security officer at the Grand Inn. He told police he was owed $400 from the driver of the van. The driver and Eirls were staying at the motel. Anderson told police he was armed with an AR rifle and told Eirls to knock on the other man's motel room door to get him to come out, to confront him about the $400. He said he was owed for the use of his vehicle and the sale of stolen goods from about four years ago.
Erlis got into the passenger side of the van. The other man went to the driver's side and took a gun from Erlis. Anderson says the man started shooting at him as he got into the driver's seat.
Anderson told police he fired back, shooting through the back windows of the van as it was moving away. That is when the van crashed into the building. Erlis told police Anderson yelled at him to throw the gun from the van.
Anderson told police he then placed his AR rifle inside his father's room at the motel and then picked up the spent shell casings from the parking lot. He told police he threw them in the dumpster before officers arrived. He told police he was on probation in Collin County and picked up the shell casings to protect his probation status. He told police his use of deadly force was to defend himself.
During the search of Anderson's father's room at the motel, 16 firearms were found and seized, which included eight AR style long guns. Anderson's father was arrested on city traffic warrants and taken to Dallas Police Headquarters.
Police recovered the gun thrown from the van.
On Wednesday, police pulled Anderson over and found he had a warrant in Denton County for aggravated robbery. He was arrested on a charge of capital murder and a warrant for aggravated robbery. He is currently in the Dallas County Jail on a combined $1,100,000 bond.
The investigation into the deadly shooting is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this offense is asked to contact Detective Guy Curtis at 214-671-3633 or at guy.curtis@dallaspolice.gov.