Search Continues for High School Student's Killer as Concerns Rise Over Violent Crime

The pleas continue for information regarding the killing of a Crowley High School senior who was gunned down at an after-prom party in late April.

Rashard Guinyard,17, was described as a standout scholar and student-athlete who ran track and had planned to attend Abilene Christian University.

According to Fort Worth police, just after midnight on Sunday, April 24, someone started firing into a large crowd at a shopping center along Altamesa Boulevard. People tried to flee, including Guinyard, but he was fatally struck. Another person was seriously injured.

"This young man was tragically shot down, and he was going to college at Abilene Christian and for young people, this is a horrible thing to happen this time of year," said Tracy Carter, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department.

"We’re looking for the public’s help, we have some leads, but we’re asking people if they were around that area during the time they would please call the homicide unit," Carter added.

Wednesday morning, local activists spoke at the shopping center where the chaos unfolded less than two weeks also. They, too, are asking for people with knowledge of the crime to step forward.

"If you know something, come forward. Come forward," said Angelico McKinney with The Brotherhood. "Be a man or woman, whoever did the shooting, if you do the crime, going to do the time, at least give the family some comfort in knowing and say, 'Hey you know, I did this.' So if you did it or you know who did it, please come forward and give this family some justice."

The activist also echoed that the amount of violent crime recently is concerning.

"This gun violence has got to stop. Too many of our young brothers and sisters are getting killed," said Donnell Ballard, president of United My Justice.

"It's unbelievable; lost for words. Something needs to be done. Get out here, Fort Worth," said Niki Pugh, vice president of United My Justice.

So far this year there have been 35 murders; last year during this time it was 32, according to Fort Worth police. The local activists said they want city leaders and police to step up with solutions to help fix the problem of crime in general, but also recognize the answer is internal.

"We're looking for outside forces in our community to stop what's going on in our community, I think we have the solution ourselves," said McKinney. "When you see something, we say something, we stop something."

"We're talking about things we can do for ourselves. Instead, we're going to leaders and stuff like that, but when y'all see things in your face, y'all come together and try to stop it," McKinney said. "Be that light in the darkness. We've got to be able to stop these things before they get to this point so we don't have to go to the police or the city council for answers. We can stop it and go home safely."

It's no secret that with the summer around the corner and school getting ready to let out, crime will go up, and the goal is to minimize that.

"With summer approaching, we’re going to have to have families, community, people watching their kids and getting on their kids and not letting them just kind of run the street if they see something with their kids going on, we need them to talk to them," said Carter. "We as a police department we work every day diligently to try to  curtail these [crimes], but again, we have to have the public's help and we need parents, when they see these kids doing wrong, they need to scold their kids, they need to say something, 'Hey see something, say something.' We can't do it alone, this is a partnership, if we can’t do it all."