DALLAS, Texas — One of the alleged gunmen from the Halloween-night shootings in Deep Ellum has been charged in federal court, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced at a Dallas press conference on Thursday, November 5. David Dashaun Yancy, 27, is charged by criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, after allegedly opening fire into a crowded Deep Ellum street and wounding seven people. This is a major new development in a story Awaaz Punjab has followed since the night of the shootings: three separate incidents early on November 1 killed four people and wounded 15 in the entertainment district, and on November 2 federal, state and local agencies launched Operation Deep Cover, a joint surge against violent crime and illegal firearms in Dallas.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas, Nov. 5, 2026

Yancy surrendered to the Dallas Police Department on November 4 and remains in custody, the Justice Department said. Dallas-area reporting adds that he also faces seven state counts of aggravated assault in connection with the same shooting and is booked into the Dallas County Jail — the state charges match the seven bystanders prosecutors say were struck at his scene. A criminal complaint is only an allegation, and Yancy is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Source: Texas Today, Nov. 5, 2026; FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (Trackdown)

What the complaint alleges happened at 2626 Main Street

According to the court documents described by prosecutors, at approximately 1:00 a.m. on November 1, Dallas Police officers responded to reports of gunfire at 2626 Main Street in the historic Deep Ellum entertainment district, which was crowded with patrons celebrating Halloween. Officers found seven people suffering from gunshot wounds. All seven victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Crime scene investigators recovered eleven 9mm fired cartridge casings and projectiles from the area.

Surveillance footage from CCTV cameras in the vicinity, the complaint alleges, captured Yancy before the shooting pulling a handgun from his waistband, racking the slide and concealing it again. Moments later, additional footage allegedly captured him pulling the firearm out and firing directly into the crowd in multiple directions, striking the seven bystanders. Prosecutors stress that this account comes from the complaint's allegations and the surveillance analysis, and it will be for a court to decide what the evidence proves.

Following witness interviews, anonymous tips and surveillance analysis, detectives positively identified Yancy as the alleged shooter, prosecutors said. On November 4, Yancy contacted the Dallas Police Department to turn himself in and was taken into custody by the Dallas Police Fugitive Unit. FOX 4's Trackdown segment, which had asked the public for help identifying the man seen shooting on Halloween night, is credited by the station with helping bring about the surrender.

A record that, on paper, barred him from holding a gun

A review of Yancy's criminal history revealed a prior felony conviction in Dallas County, prosecutors said — the fact that makes the federal charge possible, because federal law bars a convicted felon from possessing a firearm or ammunition. At the time of the shooting, Yancy was on felony deferred adjudication probation for child endangerment and had an active warrant for a probation violation. An interstate nexus analysis by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirmed that the ammunition recovered from the scene had travelled in interstate commerce, the legal link federal prosecutors need to bring the case in federal court.

"When we launched Operation Deep Cover, we made an unequivocal promise: anyone who terrorizes our neighborhoods will face the full weight of the federal government," U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said. "In less than one week, our task forces have already produced multiple federal charges — including holding accountable an alleged gunman whose reckless actions wrought violence and terror to Deep Ellum. To the criminals out there, we are just getting started."

The Halloween night this charge grows out of

Deep Ellum, immediately east of downtown Dallas, is the city's best-known live-music and nightlife district. In the early hours of November 1, as Halloween crowds filled its bars and streets, three separate shootings unfolded within a short span — the violence Awaaz Punjab reported the same day left four people dead and 15 wounded, and police have not said the three scenes are connected. On Monday, November 2, Raybould and Comeaux launched Operation Deep Cover, surging federal agents and Dallas officers into high-density entertainment and commercial corridors across the city; the same day, another man, Treyveion Dionte Demby, was charged federally with being a felon in possession of a firearm after an officer allegedly saw him pointing a handgun toward Main Street. The Yancy complaint is the operation's first charge against one of the alleged Halloween shooters themselves.

What happens next

If convicted, Yancy faces up to 15 years in federal prison on the felon-in-possession charge, separate from the state aggravated-assault counts reported by Dallas media. The ATF and the Dallas Police Department conducted the investigation under Operation Deep Cover, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marissa Aulbaugh of the Violent Crimes section is prosecuting the federal case. Investigations into the two other Halloween-night shooting scenes — where the four deaths occurred — continue, and officials say the Deep Cover surge is expanding, not ending. For the Dallas–Fort Worth Punjabi community, many of whose families and young people use the downtown nightlife districts on weekends, the case is the first concrete sign that the federal crackdown promised after Halloween is reaching the alleged shooters themselves, not only the streets around them.