‘Heavily missed’: GoFundMe started to support family of Uber driver killed in South Dallas

By Zaeem Shaikh

Family members of a 25-year-old Eritrean man fatally shot last week in South Dallas have created a fundraiser to help honor him and support their loved ones.

As of Friday afternoon, the GoFundMe for Faneal Tesfit raised a little over $58,000 with more than 900 donations.

Dallas police officers responded a little before 1:30 a.m. Feb. 20 to the 2400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, near Edgewood Street in the area of Interstate 45, and found Tesfit unresponsive inside his vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police officials said Tesfit lost control of his car after being shot at and ran off the road before crashing into an empty house.

“Anyone that knew Faneal immediately understood that he was an amazing person, but I knew him as an even more amazing older brother,” Saron Tesfit, Faneal’s sister, wrote in the GoFundMe.

Faneal knew “how to uplift the mood in every room” and would often make his mother and sister laugh, she wrote. In the fundraiser, Saron Tesfit described him as courageous, smart, loving, funny and incredibly kind.

“We pray that although you left us here on Earth that you will reunite with our family in heaven,” Saron Tesfit wrote. “Faneal will be heavily missed and always truly loved by all those around him.”

Master Tesfatsion, who identified himself as a relative of Faneal, said in a post on X that he was killed while doing drives for Uber.

“He was a proud UT alum, a big Dallas sports fan and loved FC Barcelona,” Tesfatsion said in the post. “I loved him so much and miss him dearly.”

He urged those with information about the shooting to contact Dallas police. On Wednesday, officers arrested a 15-year-old boy on a capital murder charge, police said. Multiple media personalities, including Jemele Hill, expressed their condolences to Tesfatsion, a sports journalist.

Mark Cuban also responded to Tesfatsion’s post and gave his condolences, adding “may his memory be a blessing.”

Saron Tesfit said the funds will go toward supporting Faneal’s memorial expenses, car repairs and his family.

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.