Travel Perks

Fort Worth joins the jet set with new rail line to DFW Airport

Getting to and from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport will soon be more convenient for Tarrant County.

Photo courtesy of Grand Hyatt

Fort Worth flyers and airport commuters are poised to join the jet set with an official approval by the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Board to build a rail station at the airport.

The service will run from downtown Fort Worth through Haltom City, North Richland Hills, and Grapevine to a TEX Rail Station at Terminal B. A second station will be built in Grapevine, north of State Highway 114 and west of State Highway 121, along Dallas Road.

Tex Rail is a 27-mile commuter rail project in Tarrant County that joins the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), the first commuter rail line in the Southwest. The TRE is a joint project between DART and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, also known as The T. The TRE provides service between Fort Worth and Dallas, with stops at the Victory and Union stations.

The new TEX Rail line will connect with the TRE at two downtown Fort Worth stations: Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center and T&P. At the airport, it will make a connection with DART Rail, whose station is at Terminal A; there'll be a walkway between the two lines.

DART opened its station at the airport in August 2014, creating an alternative to more costly options such as $50 cab rides, $25 shuttles, or driving and parking at the airport for $20. Having convenient train service to the airport makes Dallas-Fort Worth a vastly easier, more urban place to live or visit.

DART's service is part of the Orange Line, with a platform located between International Parkway and the north service road near Terminal A.

Construction on the TEX Rail line will start in July, while construction on the DFW station will commence in fall 2016. The service is scheduled to begin in 2018.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."