Juvenile Arrested For Murder Of 79-Year-Old Woman At Her Dallas Home
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Gloria Roque was sitting inside her home in Dallas in late October when bullets started flying into her home, hitting her at least once and killing her. Now, a juvenile has been arrested for her murder.
The shooting happened at around 10:50 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2019 at Roque's home on Meyers Street in the South Dallas area.
When officers found she had been shot, she was taken the hospital but was soon pronounced dead.
Officers learned Roque was inside the home with her adult daughter when someone started firing shots at the home. The elderly woman was hit by at least one of those shots.
Through the investigation, police learned a juvenile, who has not been identified, was responsible for the shooting. Police said he was arrested Thursday and charged with murder.
Family and friends said Roque was a piano teacher, church choir singer and an active member of her neighborhood association.
"She loved this community. She grew up here. She went to elementary school here," Roque's son, Keith Lee, said.
Lee said he tried to convince his mother two years ago to move out of the South Dallas area, but she was adamant on staying. "She wasn't scared," he said.
"Unfortunately, that's the big part of life in South Dallas. Gunshots in the air. You hear gunshots outside. You get used to it. You get complacent about it. But every once in a while they're directed at somebody," Lee said, hoping to see change in the area.
Rev. Joshua Manning at her church, Warren United Methodist Church, said she was active in the community.
"To have this incident be essentially so random and not targeted, but to have an elderly woman who was very active in the community and in her local worshipping community lose her life in the process is very frustrating," Manning said.