Additional Dallas police officers are on the streets after an especially violent weekend with seven murders.
Police said detectives suspect three separate shootings in different areas of the city were connected, including the shooting death of a homeless man and another man who was stopped at a red light.
Kenneth Hamilton was on his way home just after 9 p.m. Saturday. He stopped his vehicle at a red light on S. Beckley Avenue and Clarendon Drive in Oak Cliff. A black Chevy Tahoe can be seen on surveillance video released by Dallas police, pulling up next to Hamilton’s car.
Although no shots are visibly seen being fired, police say the 57-year-old was shot dead. The suspect’s vehicle can be seen quickly driving away.
“Just for him to be sitting at a red light and get shot down, it’s devastating,” Joyce Hamilton said.
She said her husband was "the life of the party," and "all-around good guy" with no known enemies.
She received the devastating call from the victim’s brother several hours after the shooting.
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“I just couldn’t believe that someone would take an innocent life and he was not the type of person who would be bothering anybody, and they just took his life senselessly,” Hamilton said.
Approximately 30 minutes before Hamilton was gunned down in Oak Cliff, police rushed to the North Stemmons service road at Empire Central in Northwest Dallas for another shooting.
Adam Gautreau’s lifeless body was found on the service road.
His family said the 35-year-old homeless man was shot nine times.
His family released the following statement to NBC 5.
"Adam C. Gautreau was a New Hampshire native and born on September 10, 1984. He moved to Texas in 2018 to be closer to his son. His son is 11 years old and loved his dad so much. Adam’s son was the world to him. He leaves behind a large family and many friends. Adam was very kind, caring, and always smiling. He would never hurt a soul. He will be truly missed by every he left behind."
Dallas police said the same caliber gun was used in both murders and both involved a similar suspect vehicle: a 2005-2007 blacked-out Chevrolet Tahoe.
Then, just before 1 a.m. on Monday, police responded to a third shooting.
This time it was in the 6000 block of East Grand Avenue in East Dallas. The victim’s car had its windows shot out, but the person inside survived.
Three separate shootings across the city, seemingly out of nowhere.
However, during a press conference on Monday, police would not say if they were random.
Hamilton and Gautreau’s family plead for answers, hoping to spare another family their pain.
“I’m just praying that justice will be served because he didn’t deserve to die like that,” Hamilton sai.d
Gautreau’s family has set up a GoFundMe account.
On Tuesday, Dallas police confirmed they found a vehicle fitting the suspect’s vehicle description.
However, they have yet to confirm it was indeed the vehicle involved in the shootings.
No arrests have been made.
Anyone with information on any of these shootings is urged to call DPD Detectives Guy Curtis at 214-671-3633 or Detective Scott Sayers at 214-671-3647.
