Two suspects arrested on suspicion of murder in Como killings on eve of Fourth of July

A gang quarrel motivated the mass shooting in a Como parking lot in which three people were killed, Fort Worth police said on Friday as they announced the arrest of two suspects.

Christopher Redic Jr., 20, and Brandon Williams, 19, were arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the late Monday triple homicide in west Fort Worth in which eight people were also shot and survived, police said.

An altercation immediately preceded the gunfire at an outdoor afterparty following a neighborhood celebration on July 3, Police Chief Neil Noakes said at a press conference. The chief did not say whom the suspects targeted.

Homicide detectives interviewed Redic and Williams, but Noakes did not describe what the suspects’ account was.

The suspects were arrested in Fort Worth. It was not clear whether they live in Como, Noakes said.

Police pored over video recordings to identify the assailants and relied on the expertise of officers familiar with gang members in the city. It is possible there were other shooters, Noakes said.

Police have said gunmen appeared to fire indiscriminately into a crowd.

The 10 adults and one juvenile who were shot were amid several hundred people gathered about 11:45 p.m., about two hours after the end of ComoFest, on Horne Street at Diaz Avenue, authorities said.

Cynthia Santos, 22, and Gabriella Navarrete, 18, died at a hospital, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. Paul Willis, 18, died at the scene, according to his mother, Ka’Desha Weatherly.

Those who were wounded were at three hospitals in unknown conditions.

People from across the city and outside the state came to the afterparty that followed the festival, Noakes said.

In the days after the shooting, city officials have talked to neighborhood residents about how to change the afterparty to keep away outsiders with bad intentions, Noakes said.

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