[This is the final part of a three-part series. Read part one here. Read part two here.]
I was 7000 miles away. Morning was evening, afternoon was night, and night was early morning. There were many time zones between me and any news of what was happening with my brother Dougie, arrested for Capital Murder. I read the news and gained some insight, but it was quite a blur. I couldn’t make sense of it. No one in the family knew.
We tried calling the police department. What jail is he in? Can we see him? Those questions took days to be answered. We have a relative miles away yet still in the DFW metro. He agreed to go see Doug. My recollection: he couldn’t see Doug until Friday, approximately five days after the arrest.
We eventually found a photo of Dougie online at the Tarrant County jail web site. Doug looked scared, even petrified. He had scratches on his face; one on his nose and another on his forehead.
This was the first significant indication that the news report weren’t telling the full story. Granted, the media had no way to know the full story, but I know Doug. One of the headlines said Act of kindness toward new neighbor turns deadly.
It was intended as an act of kindness for a new neighbor.
On Saturday night, Isabel Diaz’s fiance, Alfonso Beza, 45, and her older brother, Pedro Diaz, 50, spotted a man moving furniture into a rental house next door in the 2800 block of Raton Drive and went over to lend a hand.
When Isabel Diaz awoke the next morning, she couldn’t find either man.
After looking around the area and talking to other neighbors, she approached her new neighbor to ask whether he knew where the men were.
The neighbor, identified as Douglas L. Kirk, acted puzzled and said he didn’t know, she said.
“I thought, ‘Why is he acting like that, acting like he didn’t know who I was talking about?'” Diaz said in an interview Monday. “I said, ‘I’m going to go home and call the police because they were [at Kirk’s house] last night.’
“When I got to the porch, he pulled his car from the garage, and he was driving away.”
She called 911 at about 1:30 p.m. Not long afterward, police officers found the bodies of Beza and Pedro Diaz inside Kirk’s house.
Both had been shot repeatedly. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office’s website said Beza died of “multiple high-velocity gunshot wounds of head, chest and left leg.”
The implication: “no good deed goes unpunished.” The suggestion is abhorrent to me. As I said, I know Doug and he is not violent.
Over the intervening months, I made contact with several of Doug’s friends. They all unanimously agreed Doug was not violent. In fact, one of his friends told me about relating the story of the incident to another friend whose response was “No way, Doug wouldn’t hurt anyone”.
The story simply didn’t sit right. Doug had friends helping him move into the house that night. It doesn’t seem reasonable he needed the assistance of the neighbors.
Apparently, the incident happened the first night Doug intended to sleep in the house. Something went down in the house which had a violent ending; however, it certainly wasn’t because someone performed a good deed for Doug.
When she first went next door Sunday morning, nobody appeared to be home. Peeking in a window, she spotted beer cans and liquor bottles on the floor. A window was broken.
“I thought maybe they broke the window when they were moving the furniture,” she said.
When time passed with no word from the men, Diaz questioned other neighbors.
“They said they heard them arguing and saw them wrestling,” Diaz said.
Then Kirk arrived at the house accompanied by a man who drove off a short time later. She said Kirk opened the door only a crack when she knocked.
Chased by demons
The man who accompanied Kirk later told police that Kirk, a friend for 15 years, had asked him for a ride. He said Kirk told him that he thought he might have killed someone at the house.
“Kirk told him that he had fired his AR [rifle] but didn’t know if he had hit anyone,” an investigator stated in the affidavit.
Kirk also told the man that he had been chased by demons and had jumped out a window. The man told police that he could see scratches and cuts on Kirk’s arms, the affidavit states.
The man told police that he left Kirk’s house immediately after walking inside and spotting what appeared to be a man’s arm on the floor. He called 911 to report what he had seen, but when he drove back to get the house’s address, he found officers already on the scene.
The man told police that Kirk called him several times Sunday, telling him he had messed up, was leaving town and did not want to go to prison, the affidavit states.
Police reported finding an “assault-type” rifle in bushes in front of the broken window. Diaz said her nephew saw officers taking several guns from Kirk’s house.
Parts of the news media reports seemed reasonable, while others didn’t fit the facts. I believe Doug went through the broken window, and it is reasonable to think he shot an AR-15.
Doug is a gun enthusiast. He owns several guns. I don’t know how many. He owns at least two AR-15s or similar. He also likes .44s and .45s. Does that somehow make him a criminal? Doug is not a criminal; certainly he has not been convicted of a felony nor to my knowledge, a misdemeanor. He has owned guns all his adult life. He grew up with guns just as I did. I purchased my first gun at age 12 with newspaper route money.
Why, though, did he go through a window and not the door? Why did police find a rifle outside of the window? Does this sound like a cold-blooded killer or the actions of a panicked person?
Many years ago, I read the story of a policeman who was being pursued by someone wielding a knife. The officer turned and ran, firing over his shoulder until his revolver was empty. The officer was then overtaken and stabbed but, I can’t recall the final outcome, whether he lived or died. Unfortunately, I was not able to find this story on the net. I believe I first heard of it during peace officer training I received in the early 1980’s.
You see, even trained professionals can panic.
[Click here to read Part One. Click here to read Part Two.]
Something doesn’t smell right here. Suppose they went over to rob him. Why would he jump out the window and run away, to drive around in his truck? Why not call the police and get his story recorded?
And the “chased by demons” thing sounds very bad for Doug.
Let’s just get this story over with, stringing it out like this just makes the guy look like a nutjob killer. When I read part one it seemed that the guy may be innocent, but he looks very bad as the story moves forward.
That is a video of a Phillipino police officer if I remember correctly.
But the statements of your brother’s friend does not seem good. He might be non-violent guy, but “chased by demons.” That is just not good news.
Also, how do you “think” you shot a gun? You either did or did not. That is even stranger.
The facts appear to point to mental illness or a robbery attempt by the neighbors. Perhaps your brother was really drunk when it went down.
I got to be plain though that given that the statements by the friend of your brother, it does not look good for a clear case of self defense by your brother. Just too many things wrong with what he has said or did.
A clean shoot after a home invasion or other crime by these neighbors does not equate with his hightailing out of town.
Dialing 911 afterwards is more indicative of a good shoot.
What in the Sam Hill are you talking about? What is the story? What happened? Tell the story from beginning to end. WTF?
What MArk said.
C’mon, just give us the straight story. I don’t need this soap opera BS.
Jury can’t reach a verdict, the guy will have to be re-tried.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/20/3383725/mistrial-declared-in-fort-worth.html
Update: Doug Kirk was found guilty by a 2nd jury and sentenced to 47 years in prison.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/02/16/north-texan-gets-47-year-term-for-neighbors-death/
“The next morning, Kirk
told friends that he didn’t
remember what had happened
and that he was being
chased by ghosts and demons.
He said he was delusional
at the time of the
offense.
Prosecutors presented
evidence that Kirk was intoxicated
on methamphetamine,
marijuana and alcohol
at the time of the offense”
I’d like to hear the blog author’s comments on these facts.
Well first off Diaz is my father inlaw the man that killed him did what he did. Nobody went through what i went through of having to tell my kids they were never going to see grandpa ever again.Wether doug was a violent man or not wether the story seemed straight or not one thing is a fact he killed two men.
Fort Worth is safer without diaz and beza.
Agreed. It was never released during Doug’s trial the they were both convicted criminals for violent crimes and theft. The neighbors from the house the two victims where living in had been known by two other neighbors to be stealing from the owner of the house that Doug just started renting. This was confirmed to me in person by a neighbor and the landlord of the property. These facts however were never released in court. After the shooting, Doug’s metal detector was found in a pawn shop (confirmed serial number from old receipt and the person that cashed in the metal detector lived with Victims).
Fort worth is safer with out that criminal who tooken my dad and uncle away from me ! YOU DONT KNOE A GOT DAMN THING THAG HAD HAPPEND IN 2010 MY DAD ALPHONSO WAS AN AMAZING FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR WICH YOH CAN ASK ANYONE ON RATON STREET ! THIS KIRK DOUGLAS DUDE WENT BACK TO THE HOUSE WHILE MY DAD AND UNCLE WERE LAYING THERE ! WHAT WAS HE PLANNING ON DOING ? CLEANING UP HIS MESS ! WHY DID HE LEAVE WHEN MY MOM SAID SHE WAS CALLIMG THE COPS? HOW COULD THAT SICKO EVEN RETURN TO THAT HOUSE AND LOOK AT MY DAD AND UNCLE LAYIMG THERE DEAD HOW COULD HE TAKE AWAY A WONDERFUL DAD FROM A LITTLE GIRL! HE WAS MY BESTFRIEND HE WAS MY HEREO ! HE WAS AN AZO G PERSON SO WAS MY UNCLE ! NOT A DAY GOES ! ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS WHY THEM !!! SO TAKE YOUR ROTTEN COMMENTS AND GO TO HELL!
Interesting comments. I am first cousin to Doug, and have known him all of his life. He is from a very excellent Baptist family in Odessa, and they are good Christian people.
…The first time Doug was tried, he was acquitted. He had just rented the house in Ft.Worth and was moving in when these two men, who had already seen Doug and his friends carrying Dougs’ guns into the house, offered to help.
…Doug allowed this, even though the two men were covered with jail-house tatoo’s. Everyone was drinking beer.
Late at night, after Doug’s friends had left, Doug asked the two men to leave, and they refused. Instead, they tried to jump him, so Doug ran to the back room where he had a loaded AR-15.
The two men rushed down the hall after Doug, and he shot them in turn.
…Doug had evidently smoked some meth and weed, so he was disoriented, paniced, and fled the scene. He went into the back yard and hid the AR-15 in the bushes, and left the house. He was arrested the next day, after talking to friends, and being advised by an attorney to turn himself in.
…At Doug’s second trial, he was prosecuted by a very aggressive DA who pushed for the maximim sentence. Doug could only afford a public defender for himself. In the trial, Doug was painted as a drug-crazed murderer, while the peosecution supressed evidence that the two,”victims” , were parolees with long criminal records for violent offenses, robbery, and murder. Subsequently, Doug was sentenced to 47 years for,”murder.”
…I attended a hearing for Doug last year in Ft.Worth in which the main person questioned by Doug’s attorney was a private investigator, of many years experience, who testified at Doug’s second trial, in which he was given the 47 years. The private investigator testified that Beza and Diaz had been out on parole at the time of the incident, and that both had very long criminal records for violent crimes against persons, for burglaries and robberies, and even for murder, and that both were very well-documented by police to have been members of very violent and dangerous latino street and prison gangs. The private investigator further stated that the state had not made the parole records of the two,”victims” available to him prior to Doug’s trial, and that he also had not been able to find out about the ,”victim’s” criminal records prior to the trial.
…The private investigator further stated that he had also obtained information from a ,” very experienced” police officer in the area that had information from a ,” reliable” confidential informant that Beza and Diaz had made comments prior to the attack on Doug, that they were planning to do a robbery in the area.
…I did not attend the second trial, but some of my family did. My mom told me that after the 47-year conviction that Dougs’ immediate family, who were understandably very upset by the verdict, were taken aside and threatened individually to stay quiet about the conviction.
…Those who know Doug know that he acted in self defence. Even the very seasoned and experienced private investigator the state had hired said that the state had surpressed a mountain of evidence against Beza and Diaz in the case that, if it had’ve been considered, would have resulted in Doug’s acquital in the case.
…So, what we have here is yet another example of (number one),why our southern borders should have been completely sealed a long time ago.!!!!!
…And number two, exactly what is wrong with our Adult Criminal Justice System. When hardened, violent, repeat criminal offenders are released from our prisons early, on parole, and are allowed to go back out into the public and prey on unsuspecting members of the general public. Criminals who are very well known to be violent, repeat offenders, who are well-known members of violent street and prison gangs, who have been very well documented as having committed multiple incidences of violent assaults, robberies, burglaries, and murders.
…Doug’s case is now being appealed to the Supreme Court. It’s time for the State of Texas to Release Doug Kirk. He has already served 11 years for two acts of justifiable homicide that were clearly acts of self defence in his own home. Thank-you for your prayers and concerns.
Doug was weird and I found him creepy personally . There was also a party that several of my friends were at where he came out wielding a machete While on shrooms and scared the shit out of everyone …. I’m not surprised at all this happened sadly .
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