Betsy News

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price says she will not run for re-election

She's been a hugely popular figure in Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy of Wine, Women & Shoes

After 10 years in office, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price has announced that she will not run for another term.

Price made the announcement on January 5 — one week before January 13, the first day that candidates can begin to file to run for office. The next election is May 1.

She was first elected in 2011 and set a record as the longest-serving mayor in Fort Worth history. She's also the only Republican mayor of a major Texas city.

Both Price and her husband Tom tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020, but she said that the virus wasn't the reason she was leaving office, stating that she wanted to spend more time with her family and grandchildren, and open the office to a fresh perspective.

"It just hit me one day that I need to share this with other people," she told NBC 5. "There are other leaders in the city, the fresh perspective, a chance to change."

Prior to her mayoral term, Price served as Tarrant County Tax Assessor for 10 years, and was previously owner of a title office.

Among her favorite projects were health-focused initiatives such as bicycling and walking; implementing TEXRail, the commuter rail line between downtown Fort Worth and DFW Airport; improving literacy in grammar schools; neighborhood revitalization programs, and stabilizing the employee pension fund.

Price's closest race was in 2019 when she faced Deborah Peoples, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. Peoples has already said she will run again.

District 9 Councilwoman Ann Zadeh also announced she'd be running, saying in a January 5 Facebook post, "I would be honored to serve as our next Mayor and I am prepared to do so."

The job pays a piddly $29,000 a year. The filing period to run for mayor or city council is January 13-February 17.

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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."