Man in custody after 2 Dallas-area shootings leave 4 dead

A former member of the Dallas Mavericks male dance team is in custody in two Dallas-area shootings that left four people dead, police said. Police found four people shot, two fatally, in a Dallas home Wednesday evening, Warren Mitchell of the Dallas Police Department said. Shortly afterward, police in DeSoto, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, found Erbie Bowser, 44, in a DeSoto home with four gunshot victims, two of whom were dead, Melissa Franks of the DeSoto police said. Bowser was taken into custody. Family members at both crime scenes identified the dead as Toya Smith and her daughter Mia Allen in the Dallas incident, and Zina Teal and her daughter Niema in DeSoto. The four surviving victims were taken to area hospitals, and are all children; the Dallas survivors include Smith's son Storm, 14, and an unidentified girl, 17. The survivors of the DeSoto shooting are boys, 13 and 11, KXAS-TV, Fort Worth, reported. Police did not explain Bowser's relationship with the victims, but Luklean Smith, Toya Smith's mother, said Bowser was in a relationship with her daughter. At a news conference Thursday, police did not confirm a report of an explosive device allegedly detonated during the DeSoto incident. Bowser left the Mavericks basketball team's "Mavs ManiAACs" male dance team in 2009, and later was a special education teacher and coach in the Mesquite Independent School District, leaving voluntarily in 2010, KXAS-TV said.