Rolling in

Innovative Dallas ride-share app arrives in Fort Worth with cars and food-delivery

Their cars are easy to spot.

Photo courtesy of Alto

Under normal circumstances, ride-sharing is a daily part of life for folks shuttling to bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues in Fort Worth. But in these days of COVID-quarantine, the highlight of the day has become food delivery from a favorite restaurant.

Now a Dallas-based ride-share app is rolling into Fort Worth to do both. Altowill begin offering both ride-share and delivery in Fort Worth on Wednesday, April 15.

"Alto was founded with the mission of providing clean, safe, and consistent rides. Today, those same tenets are more important than ever before, not only for rides but also for deliveries," says CEO Will Coleman, who co-founded Alto in January 2019. "While our city, our state, and our country are under orders to stay at home, we know that Alto's ability to deliver everyday essentials in a clean and safe way is critical to keeping our local economy running.

"That's why we've decided to accelerate our expansion plans and launch Alto's service in Fort Worth. Effective immediately, even more North Texans will have access to Alto's delivery service during this unprecedented time of need."

As a ride-share app (available for either iPhone or Android), Alto touts itself as a safer, more consistent approach to hailing a ride. Its fleet of new SUVs is driven by employees who receive salaries and benefits. Each car is branded with the Alto logo (so riders can be sure they're stepping into the right vehicle), and cloud-based cameras capture both interior and exterior videos of the ride.

While anyone can use the app, memberships make rides more economical for regular users. It costs $12.95 per month to access the service, which then unlocks fares that are 30-50 percent lower and per-ride pricing that never surges, the company says.

Concierge from Alto is a newer, personal-shopping service. Users set a pickup and drop-off location, provide a detailed shopping list, book a concierge, and then wait for the items to be delivered.

And The Market from Alto now lets users purchase a bundle of produce or other curated "Quarantine Essential Kits" presented on the website and app. Options include a fresh fruit bundle from local farmers ($27), a pack of Wagyu center-cut strip steaks from Rosewood Ranches ($79), a 24-pack of Topo Chico ($29), Wine-O-Clock Somewhere Bundle ($70), and more. They're working on adding some Fort Worth options to the mix, they say.

Alto can deliver takeout meals and meal kits (including alcohol) from local restaurants, too. For more information on services, hours, pricing, and more, visit their website.

transportation

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."