In an Oak Cliff parking lot turned memorial, two families united to honor Darron Burks, a man who left an indelible mark in both the fraternity brotherhood and the world of law enforcement.

“This crowd speaks highly of him and everyone knows what Brother Burks stood for. He was a pure guy. He was very pure,” said Kenneth McCloud.

Dozens gathered in the For Oak Cliff parking lot on Friday for a candlelight vigil to remember Burks, who was gunned down just feet from where he was standing just a few nights earlier.

“It hurts. I think I’m cried out today,” said Fredrick Bishop.

Bishop first met Burks through the brotherhood of Omega Psi Phi.

Although they never crossed paths at Paul Quinn College, as alumni, they both shared a commitment to their fraternity’s mission of service.

At a homecoming a couple of years ago, Bishop said that shared passion for helping others further bonded the friends when Burks sought Bishop’s help joining the Dallas Police Department.

After more than 20 years, Bishop is honorably retired from the force.

“He got to the point where he said let me see where I can do more and he wanted to serve more,” he said.

At Friday’s vigil, the men and women of Burks’s police academy class stood shoulder to shoulder with his fraternity brothers and those who knew him from his nearly two decades-long career as an educator and coach.

As they lit candles and shared stories and prayers, loved ones encouraged each other to focus on memories of good times rather than dwelling in sadness.

It’s just one of the ways they said their friend and brother would want to be remembered.

“Work to continue his vision. His vision of service to young people. His service to making a mark here in this city,” said Dallas City Council member Carolyn King Arnold.

A Dallas police officer was killed in a shooting in southeast Oak Cliff on Thursday night.

On Friday morning, his mother confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that her son Darron Burks, 46, was the officer fatally shot outside the “For Oak Cliff” community center.

Two other officers were wounded in the shooting and are hospitalized. One was in critical condition and the other was listed as stable on Friday morning, Dallas police spokesperson Kristin Lowman said.

Here’s how the events unfolded late Thursday and early Friday:

Thursday, Aug. 29

10:10 p.m.: Dozens of units respond to an assist officer call in the 900 block of East Ledbetter Drive, near South Marsalis Avenue, according to an online police call log. (The News counted more than 95 units ultimately responded to the shooting.)

Responding officers find an officer shot in his marked patrol vehicle, Lowman confirms at a news conference early Friday. They exchange gunfire with a shooter, and two other officers are shot.

10:35: p.m.: Police pursuit of a suspect enters Lewisville, according to Lewisville Police Department spokesperson Rachel Roberts.

10:38 p.m.: The chase ends in the northbound lane of Interstate 35E just north of State Highway 121 Business.

The suspect exited a vehicle with a long gun, Lowman said, and Dallas officers shot and killed him.

Friday, Aug. 30

12:20 a.m.: In a post on Facebook, the Lewisville Police Department confirms that none of its officers were involved in the chase.

12:28 a.m.: In a post on X, DPD announces it is investigating an officer-involved shooting.

1:15 a.m.: Dozens of Dallas police officers stand quietly outside the emergency room entrance to Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Squad cars line the block leading up to the hospital, their emergency lights flashing.

Photos: Police officers gather outside Methodist Hospital emergency room

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3:15 a.m.: DPD holds a news conference outside Methodist hospital and confirm the shooting, the chase and the officer’s death.

“Our department is hurting,” Lowman said. “We ask tonight and this morning for the thoughts and prayers of our city, for not only those who are recovering in the hospital, but for our fallen, for their family and for their loved ones, and for us as a department as well.”

4:00 a.m.: A procession begins to lead the fallen officer from Methodist hospital to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office.

5:07 a.m.: Dallas police Chief Eddie García posts a tribute on X with the caption “No words.” He attaches a photo of a Dallas police badge above the city of Dallas with a dark blue line across the center.

7:30 a.m.: The Lewisville Police Department says the “roadway is clear” and “traffic is flowing freely” in an update to its 12:20 a.m. Facebook post.

9:13 a.m.: U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who represents the area where the shooting happened, writes on X that she is “heartbroken for the family and friends of the officer lost last night.”

“This epidemic of gun violence must end,” she also wrote.

9:23 a.m.: Gov. Greg Abbott posts to X to honor the fallen officer.

“Our hearts are with the @DallasPD & the entire Dallas community,” he wrote.

10:10 a.m.: In a statement posted to X, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson calls for city flags to be flown at half-staff.

“Dallas has lost a hero,” he wrote.

11:12 a.m.: Burks’ mother confirms to The News that her son was the officer killed in Thursday’s shooting.

When Willie Cauley-Stein entered the NBA, some scouts saw him as a Tyson Chandler-like player who could patrol the paint as a shot-blocker and be an effective lob finisher on offense. That potential paired with an NBA-ready frame led him to be selected 6th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2015 NBA Draft.

His last two seasons with the Kings were promising, averaging 12.3 PPG and 7.7 RPG while starting 139 games. Those seasons never led to the contract extension he thought would come and that started a downward spiral for the big man from Kentucky.

Cauley-Stein recently interviewed with Kyle Tucker of The Athletic (paywall) following his play in the Throwback Tournament, a reunion of sorts of former college stars. In this interview, he opens up on the struggles he faced while in the NBA in his personal life because he “could easily be dead.”

READ MORE: One Thing This Young Player Must Improve for the Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks traded for Cauley-Stein in January 2020, acquiring him from the Golden State Warriors for a second-round pick. At just 26 years old, the Mavs hoped they could unlock some of the talent hidden inside. He’d then sign a 2-year, $8.4 million contract with an option on the second year before the 2020-21 season but would be waived before the contract could expire after taking a “leave of absence.”

While on that leave of absence, Cauley-Stein was checked into an inpatient rehab center for substance abuse for 65 days. He had been buying fake pills, according to Cauley-Stein and Tucker. What he thought was Percocet was actually pills laced with fentanyl and he was “taking hundreds of them, for months and years.”

While he was with the Warriors following his Kings stint, three of his friends were shot and killed in his house in Sacramento, which started his downward mental health spiral and he turned to pills to cope. Soon after that, the grandmother who raised him was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and he “could not bear to watch her wither away,” causing him to fall further into the pills.

He checked into rehab 6 days after her death and told Tucker “The team could tell I had no energy, no love, no personality, no nothing. The drugs took everything from me. I think I’m playing hard, balling, doing my thing, and then I hear, ‘He doesn’t look like he loves basketball.’”

Thanks to a newfound love of golf and wanting to do right by his three kids, Cauley-Stein is now clean and looking to return to the NBA. He performed well for La Familia in the Throwback Tournament, even winning Defensive Player of the Year. He most recently played for the Houston Rockets’ G-League affiliate in 2022-23 and in 20 games for an Italian Club last season, breaking the Europe Cup record for rebounds in a game.

For more on his journey to recovery and finding happiness again, it’s highly recommended to check out Kyle Tucker’s full-length piece on The Athletic.

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