Coppell Chronicle Extra: Fatal Shooting in Old Town
Only two murders have happened in Coppell in the last five years
A woman was fatally shot today in Coppell, a city where murders rarely happen.
Shortly before noon, the Coppell Police Department posted this statement on Facebook: “POLICE ALERT: There is an incident being investigated in Old Town Coppell. Please stay away from the area!! There is NO active threat.”
Facebook users reported that the shooting happened outside George Coffee + Provisions. Pictures posted on social media showed crime scene tape around the restaurant and its adjacent parking spaces.
At about 1:50 p.m., the Police Department followed up with this statement:
“At approximately 11:13 a.m., the Coppell Police Department received several 911 calls regarding a shooting in the 400 block of Houston Street. Officers arrived to find a female deceased from an apparent gunshot wound. Witnesses described a male running from the scene. The male was later discovered nearby with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and transported to Baylor Grapevine. The condition of the male is unknown at this time. Next of kin are being notified, and the deceased individual’s name will not be released at this time.”
Wilson Elementary School, which is less than a mile from George, was placed in lockout mode from 11:28 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., according to a statement from Coppell ISD. That meant all students and staff were brought inside to continue with their normal activities, but nobody else was allowed in the building until the lockout was lifted. “We should all be extremely proud of how Wilson Elementary students and staff, and the Coppell Police Department responded to this situation,” the statement said.
The Coppell Police Department publishes annual reports on the city’s crime statistics. According to those reports, there have been only two murders in Coppell in the last five years; one happened in 2019, and the previous one was in 2017. The Police Department could provide no details on either incident.
Grapevine, a neighboring city with a slightly larger population, has reported just one murder in the last five years. Irving, which has about six times as many residents as Coppell, recorded at least 24 murders across 2017, 2018, and 2019. (Statistics for 2020 and 2021 were not immediately available.) Last Thursday, a 19-year-old was killed during a drive-by shooting in Valley Ranch.
I couldn’t find any information about the 2017 murder in Coppell. As for the 2019 incident, the Texas Council on Family Violence published a report that said Alberta Rogers, 84, shot her 93-year-old husband, Miles, on Sept. 30, 2019, in their Coppell home before killing herself. “Rogers had confided in her neighbor and family members about the stress of caretaking while the couple’s health deteriorated,” the nonprofit’s report said. An employee of the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed this afternoon that Miles Rogers’ death was ruled a homicide.
Coppell’s most high-profile murder happened in July of 2010, when Mayor Jayne Peters shot her 19-year-old daughter, Corinne, before killing herself.
Minutes after I published this, the Coppell Police Department identified the people involved as Caitlin Rogers and Nicholas Twining. She was 21; he was 20.
Caitlin and Nick both graduated from New Tech in 2019 and attended OU. My sons are their friends and are devastated by this. Please keep both families in your thoughts.