What she saw, she saw through the eyes of
panic, understandably so.
So investigators are starting from scratch
trying to solve the murder of the popular auto
theft detective.
Donald Manning was with a female friend
Saturday night at the East Fort Worth Park,
But she's been able to give only limited
information about Manning's assailants,
partly because the six-year veteran tried to
protect her.
Officer Manning apparently sensed again
something was about to happen,
told his friend to run, take cover.
She did.
As that occurred, a gunfire rang out.
Officer Manning was struck, and as he fell,
fired at least five times.
The FBI and officers from throughout the Fort
Worth Police Department
and are organizing and sharing the information
that is coming in.
For us, the Fort Worth Police Department, this
is absolutely our number one priority case at
this time.
But police need the help of the community.
A hotline is operating 24 hours a day now,
and officers are putting up flyers throughout
the city offering a reward
and listing numbers where information can be
called in.
Meanwhile, Manning's closest co-workers in the
auto theft division
are trying to cope with the loss of the
fun-loving detective
who enjoyed the lake and took a lot of ribbing
over his receding hairline, his youth, and his size.
I'm glad I got to work with him for about a year.
And I worked weekends with him when he first
came up.
We're weekend partners.
And a couple of us were joking this morning
about why Bobby and I were off this weekend
because we worked last weekend, so we got to
eat lunch with him Wednesday,
And that's the last time Bob and I saw him and
talked about how we laughed and carried on as
not always would.
And his supervisor says they'd recently talked
about personal and professional goals.
Basically, it illustrated his dedication to
serve the people and God himself
and realizing what his relationship was to his maker.
We had a recent discussion.
Fort Worth police are committed to tracking
down the three or four suspects involved in the shooting.
On Tuesday, the city council is expected to
approve offering a $25,000 reward
for information that leads to the arrest and
conviction of the killers.
Linda Frederick, Texas News 5.