Mansfield police said they are looking for a slain woman's boyfriend as a person of interest after she was found dead inside the couple's apartment.
Police said officers responded to a welfare check in the 600 block of Kingsway Dr. after 911 operators received a call requesting a check.
Officers found a deceased Hispanic female at the location Sunday night around 11:10 p.m. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner identified the victim as 23-year-old DeVon De La Rosa.
Based on information received at the scene, police are looking for Anthony Raymont Ford, 27, last seen driving a black 2004 two-door Pontiac Grand Am GT with Texas license plate CZ8W738, as a person of interest. Ford is described by police as a 6-foot, one-inch black male weighing about 165 pounds. A photo of Ford was released by the department and is included above.
Mansfield authorities ask that anyone with information related to the killing or the location of Anthony Raymont Ford to contact police at 817-473-0211.
Family described Ford as De La Rosa's boyfriend and the father of their son. Witnesses told NBC 5's Kendra Lyn they saw Ford leaving the apartment shortly after hearing the woman scream.
"I was like, man, I heard it and I didn't do nothing. Man, it's horrible," said next-door neighbor Melissa Gomez. Gomez said the couple had been fighting recently and that the relationship seemed rocky.
"Hear this big old scream, and it was off in her direction," said Gomez. "I was like, 'no!' About five minutes later, he comes everything down the stairs, gets in his car and takes off.
"They had a four-month-old baby and now the baby's gonna grow up not knowing his mama," Gomez said.
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Ford's mother, Lisa Ford Russell, said her son visited her shortly after the incident and dropped off his son.
"About 10:02, he brought the baby to me and that's when I came back here and we knocked on the door and couldn't get in," Russell told NBC 5. "My daughter, Crystal, dialed 911. The police came and when they arrived, we got inside and found DeVon."
"He didn't say anything to me," Russell said about the interaction with her son. "He gave me the baby, he kissed me, hugged me real tight, and took off." The boy is now safe with family.
Russell also made a public request for Ford to turn himself in.
"I want him to turn himself in. Anthony, wherever you are, please, please turn yourself in," Russell said.
Ford's sister, Crystal Bay, said De La Rosa and her brother got into an argument and that Delarosa told her she wanted to bring the baby to Bay's apartment.
"So the last time I saw her, she was going to get her son from the apartment and she was going to bring her son to my house here across the street until my brother calmed down," Bay said. "She spent some of her last minutes trying to get that baby from the apartment."
Bay said she thinks her brother was "overwhelmed" by the start of a family.
"Finally getting his life together for him, his son, and Devon, and I guess it just became too much for him," Bay speculated. "I'm not making any excuses for him. It's still no excuse for that. She didn't deserve this."
Bay echoed her mother's call for Ford to turn himself in.
"I love my brother, but he just needs to answer to police for his son," Bay said. "I have faith in my brother still that he'll come forward and turn himself in."
