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Dallas police: Suspected ‘serial killer’ of 4 slayings arrested

Police believe the four shootings were random

dallas police patrol car generic.jpg

Photo/Dallas Police Department

By Times wire report
El Paso Times

DALLAS — A man described by police as a serial killer has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of an El Paso college student in Dallas on Halloween.

Jeremy Rashaud Harris is suspected in four deaths, including a random shooting that killed El Paso native Robert “Jaden” Urrea in downtown Dallas.

Urrea, 19, was a musician, a graduate of Coronado High School and a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The Associated Press reported that Harris was arrested on murder warrants for two slayings in Dallas, another slaying in nearby Celina and an arrest warrant was issued in the Urrea shooting, according to assistant Dallas Police Chief Avery Moore.

On Friday, Moore said Harris, 31, was arrested for the death of a man found in a burning home in Celina on the northern edge of Dallas.

Harris, who was arrested Wednesday, is now jailed in Collin County on murder warrants for the Celina slaying and the fatal Nov. 14 shootings in Dallas of a panhandler and a man sitting in his car at a stoplight, according to Moore.

Jail records show Harris is being held on $3 million bond and do not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Harris is also a suspect in the Oct. 31 fatal shooting of Urrea, who was awaiting a ride home from a party.

Urrea had left a Halloween party attended by students at a downtown venue and was arraigning for a ride-hailing service back to campus, his parents said in a statement.

Security camera filmed a car pull over before someone in the car summoned Urrea. As Urrea turns toward the vehicle, he was shot in the chest at close range, his parents said.

The Dallas shootings are believed to have been committed by a lone gunman and were random, said deputy Police Chief Reuben Ramirez, who heads the department’s criminal investigations division.

“I believe this is the definition of a serial killer,” Ramirez said.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by a Dallas police detective, surveillance footage from security cameras and red-light traffic cameras identified the car as a white Fort Taurus with chrome rims and tinted windows.

Last Thursday, detectives learned that Harris had been driving such a car and was in a wreck hours after the shooting, the affidavit stated.

The car was found in a repair shop. Detectives obtained a search warrant and found a single fired cartridge underneath the car’s passenger seat, according to the affidavit.

(c)2020 the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas)

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