Lubbock police have identified the woman killed in Friday night’s West Lubbock shooting as 19-year-old Taylor Wilson. Officers were called to the 7000 block of 21st Street around 10:40 p.m. for reports of shots fired. When they arrived, they found Wilson suffering from a gunshot wound. She was rushed to UMC, where she later died.
According to LPD and the Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit, Wilson wasn’t shot during some dramatic crime spree or gang shootout. No, she was allegedly with someone who was “attempting to disassemble a gun” when it went off and hit her. In other words: someone was messing with a firearm and managed to kill a 19-year-old in the process.
Police say the investigation is still ongoing, but the early story is already depressingly familiar. Not a robbery. Not a drive-by. Just a gun being taken apart — or supposedly taken apart — in a residential neighborhood at night, because what could possibly go wrong?
And this is where Lubbock’s relationship with guns once again shows its finest work. We live in a city where firearms are treated with the same casual care as a pocketknife or a TV remote, right up until someone ends up bleeding out in an ambulance. “Attempting to disassemble a gun” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, like it’s some harmless DIY project instead of a lethal object being handled badly.
At what point does “responsible gun culture” stop looking like this — or is this just the West Texas version of routine maintenance?
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/01/10/one-person-dead-west-lubbock-shooting-friday-night/