‘He Deserves Justice’

Family seeks answers after Chris Murzin’s shooting death on LBJ Freeway

The Murzin family is seeking answers about the shooting death of their beloved husband and father in a potential road rage incident.

“Nobody deserves to die that way, and certainly Chris didn’t, and so (we) just really need to find who did this because he deserves justice,” Chris’s wife, Christina Murzin, said.

To that end, she has set up a GoFundMe to add to a reward for information about the incident and raise community awareness, potentially via a billboard and fliers. The effort raised enough money to raise the reward to $25,000.

Dallas Police responded to a shooting call at 1:04 p.m. Feb. 11 on the westbound LBJ Freeway before the South Polk Street exit ramp and found Murzin, 53, in his vehicle with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. 

“Nobody deserves to die that way, and certainly Chris didn’t.”

Christina Murzin

Witnesses told police that a small silver SUV might have been involved.

Chris, a medical salesman, Christina, and their children – Caroline, Dutch, and Jack – moved to University Park in 2006. Chris quickly became known as a champion for people with special needs, including Jack. 

“He was always trying to advocate just for inclusion for everybody,” Christina said. “That was just important to him and to us, but it was never just for us. It was always for everybody else. He really liked helping other people. That’s why he chose medical sales as a career because every day he was able to positively impact people’s lives and make things better for others.”

Chris, a former board member of United Cerebral Palsy of Houston, helped identify accessibility issues in University Park. His family’s efforts led to the city’s first barrier-free playground, located in Coffee Park.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, who represented the district now served by U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, recognized Murzin for his advocacy and selection as University Park’s 2008 Citizen of the Year.

“He was a humble man dedicated to improving the lives of the disabled in Dallas, Texas,” Sessions said. “As a father of a special needs son myself, I sincerely appreciate all of his efforts as a vocal advocate and reliable resource for identifying areas of potential change for the special needs community.

“I will honor his legacy by continuing to serve the special needs community with the same resolve and commitment as Chris so faithfully did,” the congressman said.

To Christina, though, he’ll be best remembered as a loving husband and father who was their son Jack’s “right hand man.”

“He had a very fun-loving spirit and a great zest for life,” she said. “Just through Jack being the manager for the varsity boys basketball team for three years, Chris was always with Jack on the sidelines for a lot of the time.”


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Rachel Snyder

Rachel Snyder, former deputy editor at People Newspapers, joined the staff in 2019, returning to her native Dallas-Fort Worth after starting her career at community newspapers in Oklahoma. One of her stories won first place in its category in the Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest in 2018. She’s a fan of puns and community journalism, not necessarily in that order.

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