Tyler police say fatal shooting at apartments was part of drug deal
Published 10:35 am Wednesday, March 4, 2020
- Two women displaced by the crime scene watch as the Tyler Police investigate a shooting at the Foundry Apartments on Varsity Drive.
Tyler police have identified two victims in a shooting that killed one man Tuesday night at The Foundry Apartments.
Tyler police and fire responded to the Foundry Apartments at 3400 Varsity Drive at about 11:15 p.m. Two victims, who were struck by gunfire, were located near building No. 2700.
Police say the incident began as a drug deal with three people.
According to police, Armani Jewel Fields, 19, of Lufkin, was shot and killed. Tristan Craig, 20, of Henderson, was shot, but he drove himself to the hospital where he is in stable condition. The third person in the altercation ran from the scene. A woman, who was not involved, was shot while in her apartment but she is in stable condition.
Detectives and crime scene investigators recovered multiple weapons, police said.
The person who fired the fatal shot has not been identified, however, after the initial investigation, police told the Tyler Morning Telegraph the two or three people involved in an altercation knew each other and the person who fired the fatal shot is not a threat to others.
Witnesses told the Tyler Paper police tried CPR on Fields.
“There was a report of a person who ran from the scene and we know who that person is,” Lt. Eddie Sheffield told the newspaper. “Nobody should be sheltered in place, we do not believe there is danger to anyone. We do know who that person is.”
A resident of the apartments who did not want to be named, said, “We were in the house hanging out and stuff, and there were gunshots — we didn’t know it was gunshots at the time — but it was like three (gunshots) and then it stopped, and then there were three more, and then it stopped, and then there were more, and it just kept going.”
The resident added, “We just waited there, thinking ‘hopefully that wasn’t gunshots.’ When we heard the sirens, we were thinking ‘hopefully nothing bad has happened,’ because they took way too long to come. It had been like 10 to 11 minutes until they got here. We came outside, you could see all the patches on him … they asked him if he was OK, when