Man in Grand Prairie shooting arrested on murder charges
By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE – A man was arrested on suspicion of capital murder Tuesday after alerting police that he shot two men in his driveway.
Foyil Deal, 63, of Grand Prairie was arrested after police found Wesley Duncan, 40, of Cleburne and Wylie Casey Jr., 35, of Arlington dead in a sedan parked at Mr. Deal's home in the 500 block of Cimarron Trace. Mr. Deal was being held at the Grand Prairie Jail and was expected to be arraigned today, police said.
Police are trying to determine the veracity of Mr. Deal's assertion that he killed both men in self-defense. He told police that the men forced him to withdraw money from an automated teller machine, then threatened him with a baseball bat.
"They knew of him – how, exactly, it hasn't all come to light," said Detective John Brimmer, a police spokesman. "It wasn't a random thing where they just decided to pick his house out of all the houses in the neighborhood. We have not ruled out that this could have been drug-related."
Mr. Deal told police that the two men – one armed with a baseball bat – forced their way into his home about 8 a.m. and forced him to go with them to an ATM at a local bank. After money was withdrawn, the men drove Mr. Deal back to his house, and he said they again threatened him with the bat.
Mr. Deal, who has a concealed-handgun license, shot both men with a small gun he had in his pocket.
"He told us it wasn't until [the trio returned to the house] that he felt threatened enough to use deadly force," Detective Brimmer said. "Up until then, he said, he was content to let them have the money."
The car was left running with its reverse lights on in the short driveway to a stand-alone garage. Neighbors said there were ski masks and a baseball bat on the ground nearby.
"I heard one gunshot, and I muted the TV and said, 'That sounds like a gunshot,' " said Keith Young, who lives across the street. "Then I heard, pow-pow."
Detective Brimmer said that even if Mr. Deal did shoot in self-defense, investigators will refer the matter to a Dallas County grand jury to determine whether he will be indicted.
Neighbors said that Mr. Deal had lived at the white-and-green house for about 10 years, keeping mostly to himself except to mow the lawn. He has a son who visits occasionally as well as a nurse who cares for him a few times a week, several neighbors said. Some neighbors also said that there was a steady stream of people knocking on Mr. Deal's door. Late last month, police were called to the house to quell a disturbance.
He's "an elderly man who has had open-heart surgery. He has quite a few medical conditions," said neighbor Kathy Embree.The neighborhood has faced crime problems over the past few years, she said. Neighbors reported burglaries, thefts, loitering and loud noises into the night. "The cops come here quite a bit, actually," Ms. Embree said. "The boomboxes, the firecrackers, the shootings." "In other words, we don't let our kids out to play," added her next-door neighbor Laura Mathews. "I've got a 15-year-old that's not allowed out after dark."
Nope, this confirms rather than refuting my insight that the local media is grasping at straws to discredit a case of armed self-defense.