Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 52

Gun Deaths Rock Coppell • Library Doubles Down on ‘Gender Queer’ • Local Election Slates are Set • Updates From the Sports Desk

Feb 20, 2022

A lone bouquet leaned against the fence around George Coffee + Provisions on Sunday, not far from where Caitlin Rogers was killed.

Our community was shocked on Wednesday by a pair of fatal shootings. Nicholas Twining, 20, killed Caitlin Rogers, 21, outside an Old Town coffee shop before turning the gun on himself; he died after being taken to a Grapevine hospital. Both of them grew up in Coppell and were students at the University of Oklahoma. The Coppell Police Department said the two had been roommates, but “no dating relationship has been confirmed.”

Shortly before noon on Wednesday, the 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.”

Just after 5:15 p.m., the police department released the names as well as the information about Rogers and Twining being former roommates. That’s also when Twining’s death was announced.

The Police Department publishes annual reports on Coppell’s crime statistics. According to those reports, there have been only two murders in the city in the last five years; one happened in 2019, and the previous one was in 2017. The Police Department did not provide 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.) On Feb. 10, a 19-year-old was killed during a drive-by shooting in Valley Ranch.

Online searches for any information about the 2017 murder in Coppell only led to articles about the 2014 death of Jonathan Crews. His case has been covered by outlets ranging from D Magazine in Dallas to the Daily Mail in London.

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 that Miles Rogers’ death was ruled a homicide.

I do not know whether Caitlin Rogers was related to this couple, but I do know former Parks and Recreation Board member Earl “Pops” Rogers was her grandfather. His memorial service, which had been scheduled for this afternoon, was cancelled after his granddaughter was killed.

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.

Although the Coppell police have not confirmed that Rogers and Twining were dating, please take time to remind your daughters and sons (especially your sons) that no romantic relationship is worth dying over, and certainly not worth killing over. Coincidentally, this is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. At 4 p.m. tomorrow, the Cozby Library and Community Commons invites high school students and young adults (up to age 25) to an educational program called “Adulting: Healthy Relationships.” Ryan S. Thomas from Hope’s Door New Beginning Center will discuss respect, communication skills, boundaries, and self-awareness.

The Texas Council on Family Violence reports that 228 Texans were killed by their intimate partners in 2020, which was a 23 percent increase from 2019. The council’s report said 31 friends, family members, and bystanders were also killed in those 2020 incidents while 17 were injured.

Luckily, no one else was killed or injured on Wednesday, although there were customers and employees at George when the shootings happened. City Council Member Cliff Long talked to Channel 8 about how one of the bullets hit his building next door; those bullets could have easily struck a third or fourth person.

Police have not said what type of gun Twining used or how he acquired it. But we do know he was 20 years old, and the minimum age to legally buy a handgun from a dealer in Texas is 21. If you have guns in your home, please make sure they are properly secured.

Library Doubles Down on ‘Gender Queer’

On Friday, the Cozby Library and and Community Commons issued a press release that provided more details on the Gender Queer saga that I detailed in last week’s Chronicle.

“We understand there will be items in the collection that some may find disagreeable, either in whole or in part, but we cannot completely prevent this while still doing our job to serve the community as a whole,” Director of Library Services Dennis Quinn said in the release.

A subscriber asked me a good question in response to last week’s Chronicle: Has the Library Advisory Board ever removed a book from the Cozby collection as the result of a resident’s request? I passed that question on to Quinn, and this was his response:

“To my knowledge, the Board has not removed any materials as a result of a reconsideration process. I’d have to go through a few decades of meeting minutes to give you a definitive answer. Requests have also been extremely rare for us in general.”

Because the Library Advisory Board was deadlocked on Feb. 10 when deciding whether or not to remove Gender Queer from the Cozby collection, the matter will be subject to another vote when the board meets on March 10.

Two days before that meeting, Harper Collins will publish Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American. Like Gender Queer, Messy Roots is a graphic memoir with LGBTQ themes. Unlike Gender Queer, Messy Roots depicts scenes in Coppell; it was written and drawn by Laura Gao, who is a graduate of Coppell High School. Her book tour includes a stop at the Cozby Library and Community Commons at 2 p.m. on May 1.

Local Election Slates are Set

The deadline to file a candidacy for most of the May 7 municipal elections was 5 p.m. on Friday. Here’s who will be on the ballots filled out by voters in Coppell and Coppell ISD:

Coppell ISD Board of Trustees: The district’s 2019 election was cancelled because nobody challenged Anthony Hill, Manish Sethi, and Leigh Walker. Sethi and Walker will be automatically re-elected again, but Carol Lacey McGuire is standing in the way of Hill’s bid for a sixth term. In Coppell ISD, the only difference between the seats is the competition (or lack thereof). McGuire could have challenged any of the incumbents, and she chose Hill.

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees: The CFB school district, which includes parts of Coppell and Irving, has a unique method of conducting elections called cumulative voting. Because three seats will be on the ballot, each voter will get three votes. You can give one candidate all three of your votes or divide your votes among multiple candidates.

CFBISD didn’t need an election in 2019, because Tara Hrbacek, Guillermo Ramos, and Randy Schackmann were the only candidates for the three seats. This year, voters will choose between Hrbacek, Schackmann, and newcomers James Allen, Kim Brady, and Ileana Garza-Rojas.

A separate special election will decide who gets to spend one year in the seat currently occupied by Carolyn Benavides. The filing deadline for that one is 5 p.m. on March 7. So far, only Benavides has filed the paperwork.

Irving City Council: A Valley Ranch resident named Kailen Kasky and a Hackberry Creek resident named Brad LaMorgese are among the three candidates for the Place 2 seat, which has no geographic restrictions. The third candidate, J.C. Gonzalez, is using a P.O. box as his official mailing address, so I can’t tell you where he lives.

Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees: About 700 Coppell residents live in Lewisville ISD. Angie Cox is not seeking re-election to the Place 3 seat, so voters will choose between Samuel Griffith, Pam Johnson, and Sheila Taylor. Place 4 incumbent Katherine Sells is being challenged by Staci Barker and Carey Turner. Place 5 incumbent Jenny Proznik has one competitor, Chris Bowen.

Lewisville City Council: There are a few hundred Coppell ISD residents who live in Lewisville. Place 4 incumbent Brandon Jones is unchallenged for the third election in a row, and Place 5 incumbent Kristen Green will similarly sail to a second term. Because Lewisville annexed Castle Hills last fall, a new Place 6 seat will be on the ballot. The candidates are Tom Cottrell and Patrick Kelly.

Speaking of Castle Hills, that community has some of the most outstanding public playgrounds the Koller family has ever experienced. If you have young children or grandchildren, ask your GPS to route you to Pirate Park or Dragon Park. The kids’ minds will be blown.

Updates From the Sports Desk

Major League Baseball’s spring training is delayed due to the lockout, and my bracket for the Jeopardy! National College Championship is completely busted. Despite that misery, there are plenty of uplifting sports stories right here in Coppell.

• The Coppell High School varsity girls basketball team has cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs. They crushed Allen, 63-39, before defeating MacArthur by a similarly lopsided score of 53-36. Next up for the Cowgirls are the South Grand Prairie Lady Warriors, who just eked out a 6-point victory over Plano. That game is scheduled for 6 p.m. tomorrow at Ranchview High School in Valley Ranch.

• The Coppell High School varsity boys basketball team will open the playoffs on Tuesday against McKinney. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rock Hill High School in Frisco.

• Piper Carrell, Scout Carrell, Maria Husain, and Cam Girard represented Coppell High School at the UIL Wrestling State Tournament in Cypress this weekend. Scout Carrell and Husain finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

• Katelyn Jost (500-yard freestyle) and Sean Li (100-yard breaststroke) represented Coppell High School at the UIL Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin this weekend.

• Figure skaters Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc — who are coached by her parents, Coppell residents Peter and Darlene Cain — finished in eighth place among the pairs at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

• As reported in Coppell Chronicle No. 32, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees in September approved the installation of turf fields at the baseball and softball stadiums behind CHS9. The Cowboys played on their new turf for the first time on Friday, when they hosted Lake Highlands for a scrimmage.

Chronicle Crumbs

• The agenda for Tuesday’s Coppell City Council meeting includes this action item: “Consider approval of an Ordinance repealing Chapter 1, Article 1-13 ‘Code of Conduct’ in its entirety; and authoring the Mayor to sign.” A member of the Conduct Review Board forwarded me an email from City Secretary Ashley Owens that says the board will be dissolved if the council approves this ordinance. The plot thickens …

• The Cozby Library offered free Love Your Library gift boxes — featuring treats, library swag, and books, of course — to anyone who needed a unique Valentine’s Day gift. The one I picked up was a big hit with my Valentine.

• Have you noticed the major construction project along the south side of Interstate 635, just west of MacArthur? It will be a new headquarters for the MetroTex Association of Realtors.

Community Calendar

Girls on the Run: This program focuses on strengthening the physical and emotional health of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade girls; its companion program, Heart & Sole, is for middle-school girls. Both programs meet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at Andrew Brown Park East. The registration deadline for the spring season is Feb. 27.

PEROT! American Patriot: Theatre Coppell is presenting the world premiere of a new play by Dallas Morning News columnist Dave Lieber. Performances at the Coppell Arts Center are scheduled for this afternoon, Friday evening, Saturday evening, and next Sunday afternoon.

Pieces of Love: Valentine’s Day may be in our rear-view mirrors, but the Coppell Community Chorale will present a program of love songs at 3 p.m. on Feb. 27 in the Main Hall at the Coppell Arts Center.