Two missing children were found safe at The Hive on Abrams
Update at 4:05 p.m.: The suspect died today of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Two boys who were the subjects of an intense search and Amber Alert were tracked to The Hive apartments on Abrams Road near Skillman this morning. The man who police say killed their mother in a domestic dispute before kidnapping the kids attempted suicide to avoid capture by police.
The incident began about 8 p.m. Sunday night when Dallas police were called to do a welfare check at an apartment complex on Ferguson Road. When they arrived, Latiffiney Rodgers, 26, was dead inside and her two children were missing.
Police asked DPS to issue an Amber Alert for Rodgers’ children, Julien, 1, and Jorden, 7. They said both were likely to be with their father, Johnnie Palmore, 33.
DPD Sgt. Warren Mitchell said investigators followed a tip that the kids might be inside a unit of The Hive in the 6000 block of Abrams Road Monday morning, NBC DFW reports. After confirming the boys were inside, police called for SWAT officers, who attempted to communicate with the people inside.
About 9:30 a.m., SWAT officers entered the apartment and found the missing children safe and unharmed. They heard a gunshot in a back bedroom and found Palmore suffering from a self-inflicted wound. Another woman and child were also inside the apartment.
Palmer’s criminal history includes allegations of theft, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and child negligence, NBC DFW found. In 2018 he was accused of hitting and choking Rodgers as she held 4-month-old Julien in her arms. During that incident, 6-year-old Jorden told arriving officers his daddy was “being bad” and “hurt his mommy.”
The Rodgers children have been placed temporarily in the care of the Dallas Child Advocacy Center. Palmer was transported to the hospital and is in critical condition.
