Police say the suspect, the woman’s grandson, later admitted the shooting happened early that morning inside the apartment.
ARLINGTON, Texas — What Arlington police first encountered Friday afternoon was not the shooting itself but its aftermath: a 68-year-old woman lying on her patio under a blanket, discovered by family members hours after investigators say her grandson shot her inside the apartment.
That difference in timing shaped the case from the start. Police say the body was not found until about 4:40 p.m. on March 20, but detectives later concluded the fatal shooting happened much earlier that morning. The gap turned the investigation into a reconstruction of missing hours, centered on what happened inside the apartment, how the body was moved outside and why relatives were the ones who ultimately found the victim.
The first known public moment in the case came with the emergency call from the apartment complex in the 1800 block of Carriage House Circle. A relative told dispatchers an unresponsive woman had been found outside the front door. When officers and paramedics arrived, they found the woman on the patio with a blanket covering her body. She had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene. At that point, police had a homicide but few public details. The victim’s name was withheld, and authorities did not initially explain what had happened before relatives reached the apartment. The location, near East Lamar Boulevard, is a residential pocket where the front patio functions as part of the threshold between private family life and public view.
Detectives then traced the case backward. Arlington police said their investigation led them to 21-year-old Rontrell Jackson, the woman’s grandson. According to the department, detectives learned the pair had recently argued in a dispute tied to Jackson’s allowance money. Police said Jackson later admitted that he shot the woman early Friday inside the apartment and dragged her body outside afterward. Officers recovered a firearm inside the apartment that they believe was used in the killing. Those details gave investigators both a motive theory and a basic sequence, but several points were still unresolved in the public record, including the precise time of the shooting, who else may have been at the residence that day and when family members last had contact with the victim before finding her.
As more information surfaced, the victim was identified in follow-up local coverage as Rita Marie Jackson, though police had initially said the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office would handle the formal release of her name. The medical examiner also was expected to determine the official cause and manner of death. The police statement was spare and procedural, describing a “heated argument” and a body dragged to the patio. That left relatives and neighbors outside the public account except for the family member who made the discovery. It also meant the strongest known evidence in the early stage came from the suspect’s reported statement, the crime scene and the firearm recovered inside the residence.
The arrest phase moved quickly. Police said detectives obtained a warrant charging Jackson with murder, and he was booked into the Arlington City Jail before being moved to Tarrant County. County inmate records later showed him in custody at the Tarrant County Corrections Center with bond set at $750,000. Public reports available after the arrest did not make clear whether he had appeared before a judge for a first hearing, whether a lawyer had commented on the allegations or when prosecutors might present the case to a grand jury. For now, the legal posture remains at the charge-and-hold stage, with the investigation still described by Arlington police as active.
Seen through the order in which facts became public, the case is less a straight line than a reverse narrative. Family members first saw the ending. Officers secured the scene next. Detectives then filled in the earlier hours by interview and evidence collection. Only after that did the alleged motive emerge, followed by the reported admission and the weapon recovery. That sequence helps explain why the story drew attention beyond Arlington: it began with a grim discovery in plain sight and only later narrowed into an accusation that police say points back inside the apartment and into a family dispute over money.
Jackson remained jailed on the murder allegation in the latest public records, while the medical examiner and court process were expected to produce the next formal updates. The next milestone is likely an initial court step or new filing that adds detail beyond the arrest account.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.