Fort Worth murder trial begins for man in fatal shooting caught on video in gang feud

A murder trial began Monday in Fort Worth for an accused gunman in a fatal shooting caught on video in 2019 in a Berry Street parking lot.

Opening statements were held Monday morning in Criminal District Court No. 4 in the trial of 30-year-old Damorian Allen of Fort Worth. Prosecutors were still presenting their case Monday afternoon, and the trial will continue Tuesday.

Allen is accused in the shooting death of 28-year-old Tony Austin on May 21, 2019.

Austin’s death was one of 10 shootings during that time, including three homicides, that authorities said were connected to an ongoing gang feud.

Three other men were charged in the case and they have been sentenced.

Allen is accused of being the gunman who killed Austin.

In video obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2019, Allen, who was in the same car as Austin, can be seen exiting the front passenger side and firing a handgun, appearing to shoot Austin in the head. Austin, who had just gotten out of the car, collapsed in the parking lot.

A warrant in the case gave this brief account of the shooting:

About 12:15 p.m. on May 21, 2019, a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu with Texas license plates arrived at Ace Auto Repair & Tire in the 1300 block of East Berry Street. A man walked out of a maintenance bay and talked to the driver and a back seat passenger, but later walked back into the business.

Austin, who was the back seat passenger, got out of the Malibu, armed with what appeared to be a handgun in his right hand.

At about the time Austin got out of the car, another Malibu with temporary tags pulled into the parking lot. A passenger in that second Malibu got out of the car and exchanged words with Austin.

During the argument, a man later identified as Allen got out of the front passenger door of the car Austin had been in. That man fired a handgun over the top of the car toward the Malibu with temporary tags, but the shot appeared to hit Austin in the head. Austin collapsed and dropped his handgun, according to the warrant.

The man who had first opened fire shot again toward the Malibu with temporary tags. He then got back in the car, which accelerated in reverse out of the parking lot and drove away.

As the first man was shooting, another man ran through the parking lot and appeared to turn and try to shoot back at the car that Austin had been sitting in, the warrant says. The man didn’t immediately shoot back because the car he had exited from was in between him and the other shooter.

The man later moved behind a truck and fired three times, the warrant says. He then ran to the alley of the business, where the Malibu with temporary tags picked him up and drove away. That man was later identified as Avery Colter, 27, of Fort Worth.

A witness told detectives that Colter was the man who had gotten out of the Malibu with temporary tags and argued with Austin, leading to the exchange of gunfire.

Colter was the first person arrested and called a suspect in the case, but his attorney told the Star-Telegram that Colter was not the man seen shooting Austin in the video.

Colter was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2020 for deadly conduct and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon in the case, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.

Daquan Ackerman, 29, of Fort Worth, was sentenced in 2021 to two years of probation on a charge of deadly conduct, and Patrick West was ordered to go to prison in 2021 for four years on a charge of tampering with physical evidence.