Innocent woman killed in South Dallas car wash shootout

DALLAS - One woman is dead and several other people were hurt in a shootout at an infamous South Dallas car wash.

Just before 10 p.m. Sunday, police found four people with gunshot wounds at Jim’s Car Wash on MLK Boulevard, not far from Fair Park. One innocent victim was killed.

Surveillance video from the car wash where it happened shows some in the crowd scatter when the gunfire starts, but many people didn't. The Dallas police chief is concerned that those who don't react are immune to violence.

The victim who was murdered was an innocent 56-year-old woman who had nothing to do with the criminals shooting at each other.

Police are trying to identify the shooters. They do not know how many there were, but they found more than 40 shell casings were found.

The woman who died has worked at that car wash for 25 years with her husband. It's where the couple met.

Surveillance video provided by police shows the moment more than one gunman started shooting at the car wash Sunday night. Four people were shot.

Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall points out that some people didn't even react to the more than 40 shots that were fired, but instead just kept washing their car or recording video.

“This is concerning to us because what it shows us is that our community has become immune to violence,” she said in a Monday press conference. “There were individuals so busy recording the incident that it took more than four or five minutes to actually call the police.”

Marshall Cornelius met his wife, 56-year-old Sheila Sanders, while they worked together at the car wash.

"This is a landmark. I've been here for 25 years. Right here at this car wash,” he said. “There's never been nothing like that here until last night."

Sanders was working at the time of the shooting wearing a neon yellow vest and sweeping. Sadly, she was killed in Sunday’s shooting.

"Whoever did this, I just pray that you get yours,” Cornelius said. “I'm going to turn it over to God."

Crime seems to come to Jim’s Car Wash, although owner Dale Davenport says it is the first murder there in the 26 years since he's owned it.

"We've got to do something about this,” he said.

It's where hundreds of people hang out. The City of Dallas has been trying to shut it down, calling it a nuisance. Davenport says he used to hire off-duty officers and he installed bright lights.

"If this was a 7 Eleven, there'd be people hanging out. If it was a Sonic, you'd have people hanging in their cars,” he said. “If there's a little kid running around out here, I'll go and tell that mother to watch that kid."

Chief Hall blames socioeconomic problems in part saying there's nothing else for people to do.

“We know that there are challenges in the community relative to where individuals are actually able to entertain themselves in the southern sector in southern Dallas,” she said.

Cornelius sees the car wash differently. He says most Sundays police are there patrolling. He doesn't know why they were not there before the shooting started Sunday. For him, Jim's Car Wash is where he met his wife while at work while they were both on the job at the car wash 25 years ago.

"One thing led to another and it worked out. We've been together that long. I pursued her. I didn't let her back down,” he said. “I'm going to miss her.”

The police chief says that she had a conference call with community leaders and local pastors about crime in south Dallas. She says the rise in homicides is not an issue that can fix only by making arrests, but it's also a socioeconomic issue.