Dallas City Cameras 'Out Of Order' At Crucial Moment Hinder Deadly Hit-And-Run Investigation
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Tana Knutson will sit in her daughter's old car to breathe in her lingering scent and talk to her. She hasn't mustered the courage to clean her still messy room.
"I miss her every day. And there's never going to be a single day in my life I don't think about her," she said.
Jasmine Hassan, 21, was leaving a bar on the 2800 block of McKinney Avenue in Dallas shortly after 2:00 in the morning on March 22, when friends say she got into an argument with a man who'd asked for her number.
Friends said the man drove off, but circled back.
"They thought he got angry because she had rejected him," said Knutson.
Police say, Jasmine was walking next to the man's car, as the fight continued, when she lost her footing. She fell and was run over. The driver kept going.
"I want to know what happened. What was he thinking?" said Sydney Uppal, Jasmine's 16-year-old sister.
Dallas Police homicide investigators scoured the area for video and found just one blurry picture of the car that they've identified as a 2009-2013 model plain, white Chevy Camaro.
Jasmine's mother was handing out fliers in the area, when she noticed police cameras along McKinney Avenue. Two in particular are located in the direction the driver took off.
Knutson asked a detective whether they could provide clues.
"And he was like, 'They don't work'," she said. "They should work!"
A detective confirmed the two cameras located where McKinney Avenue intersects with Fairmount Street and Boll Street weren't working.
A police department spokesperson told us at least one has since been fixed, while yet another on the same street is down.
The department currently has 354 cameras across the city, designed to work both as deterrent and and aide to investigators, who can review up to two weeks of footage, when they're functioning properly.
The ones in Uptown have been in place since 2008, according to the department.
"Someone has to know something," said Uppal.
She's now hoping someone will come forward to give her family answers in her sister's death.
Dallas Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information in the case. The anonymous tip line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 214-373-TIPS.
The Vehicle Crimes Unit detective on the case, Detective G. Baum can also be reached at Gerald.Baum@dallascityhall.com.