Woman killed in Arlington was trying to sell jewelry for Christmas money - Fort Worth Star Telegram
The woman killed in the parking lot of an Arlington apartment complex on Thursday had been trying to sell jewelry to raise money for Christmas, police said Friday.
Arlington police investigators believe that her potential buyers followed her home from a Target store and fatally shot her.
The woman, who has not been identified by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office, had arranged to meet the buyers at the Target on Arbrook Boulevard near South Cooper Street.
The woman and her husband went to the store, where they were going to meet the buyers at the Starbucks inside, said Lt. Chris Cook, a police spokesman.
The buyers didn’t show, the husband told police, so couple drove back to their apartment complex, about a mile away. The husband dropped the woman off and drove away to return to work, Cook said.
“As soon as the husband pulled away, that’s when [witnesses] saw the suspects exit their vehicle,” Cook said.
The witnesses then saw an altercation between the woman and the suspects and heard one gunshot.
The shooting happened about noon Friday at the Pavilion Apartments in the 3500 block of Timberwood Circle.
Detectives believe she had arranged to meet the potential buyers through an online service, Cook said.
Police released video Thursday night of two “people of interest” leaving the Target store. No arrests had been made by Friday afternoon.
Last year, Arlington established a “Safe Exchange Zone” at police headquarters for people to buy and sell transactions arranged on websites such as Craigslist and OfferUp.
But Cook said the woman on Thursday still took the proper precautions, meeting the buyers at a busy public place.
“This is a bad case,” Cook said. “She’s just trying to do the right thing by meeting the potential buyer in a well-occupied place. That’s what she did. Unfortunately, the suspects followed her home.”
Other local police departments have safe exchange zones. Those were emphasized again in October after a Dallas mother was killed trying to sell her daughter’s iPhone through the OfferUp app.
Martha Teran, 42, had arranged to meet potential buyers in the parking lot of MedievalTimes, a busy dinner theater restaurant off Stemmons Freeway. When she got there, police said, she was fatally shot.
