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Home > Blogs > Dayton area crime > Archives > 2009 > November > 27 > Entry
Thanksgiving day homicide leaves more questions than answers
DAYTON - LaPeetra Dawson hugged her 8-year-old daughter on Thanksgiving Day on the spot where her 35-year-old father laid slumped over hours before.
“He didn’t make it,” Dawson said.
Darnell Wilson died at Miami Valley Hospital after being shot in the neck some time before 8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26, at the Germantown Meadows apartments at 4700 Germantown Pike.
It has been more than 24 hours since his death and police have little clues or leads in the city’s 38th homicide this year.
Dawson has swept the front sidewalk outside her front door to shield their two kids from seeing their dad’s blood. Now, she wipes away her tears and those of his son and daughter.
“He was a good man and loved his kids,” Dawson said. “I can’t believe this has happened. On Thanksgiving.”
Dawson said her partner of 13 years was returning home about 8 a.m. when she opened up the door and saw him slumped over on the sidewalk. She, nor her neighbors, said they heard any commotion, let alone a gunshot.
Dawson said Wilson’s brother found him first in the parking lot and noticed he was bleeding inside his parked vehicle, just feet from Wilson’s front door. She said she wasn’t sure how he made it from her car to her front door.
It is unclear how long he had been suffering from the gunshot wound before his family found him.
“I have no idea why anyone would want to do this,” Dawson said. “Whoever did this should recognize they killed a father who had a family that loved him and they did it on Thanksgiving.”
Police said anyone with information about Wilson’s death should call 333-COPS.
