Coronavirus News

COVID-19 shuts down Fort Worth bars and lowers restaurant capacity

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CDC

Fort Worth edges back towards lockdown mode following an increase in COVID-19 cases that will shut down bars and force certain businesses, including restaurants, stores, and gyms, to reduce capacity to 50 percent.

The measure is a result of an executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott that went into effect in October, requiring rollbacks if and when COVID-19 resurged.

Bars will go from 50 percent to closed.
Elective surgeries are on hold.
Restaurants and businesses are now limited to 50 percent occupancy, from their previous 75 percent.

The benchmark was hospital beds: According to Abbott's order, if more than 15 percent of hospital beds were in use by COVID-19 patients for seven days in a row, then the rollbacks kicked in.

DFW currently has 15.6 percent of beds in use for COVID-19 patients. Occupancy can go back up if that percentage of hospital beds stays below 15 percent for a week.

The closure was not exactly a surprise. The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in North Texas hospitals reached a new high on December 1. The average number of patients being treated daily in December was nearly three times as high as September, according to DFW/CBS.

The order affects counties across North Texas including Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Parker, and Collin counties.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will inform business and bar owners of the policy change, commission spokesperson Chris Porter told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. But Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said the county will leave it to the state and cities to enforce the governor’s policy.

Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins issued a statement:

"Today is the 7th consecutive day our region has been above the 15% of all available beds occupied by COVID19 patients threshold," he said. "Pursuant to @GovAbbott’s executive order GA-32, once today’s numbers are updated on the @TexasDSHS website (tonight) our region will be subject immediately to a decrease in all non essential business occupancy limits from 75% to 50% and other protocols laid out in GA-32."

The order will reduce the number of places people can gather which theoretically will reduce the spread of COVID-19.

health

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."