MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An 18-year-old and soon-to-be father was killed last year while walking through a church parking lot returning from a trip to the store.
The Memphis Police Department is still looking for the gunmen responsible and asking the public for help.
Tamara Walton says she will never forget the pain she felt when she found out her brother Detrich Walton, affectionally known as Coope, had been shot.
“When I got to Methodist South I immediately saw lights, police lights, my heart sank because I knew that it was probably true, my brother had been shot,” she said.
Memphis police say Coope was shot June 22, 2023, in the 800 block of West Raines Road, around 10:30 p.m.
Investigators couldn’t tell his family much about the shooting.
“They just told us that he was leaving from the store and was coming through the parking lot of a church and some guys just shot him,” Tamara said.
Tamara says her family ran out of the hospital with the news she never expected to hear.
“I see my family run out and they say, ‘He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone’. That’s when I found out that my brother had succumbed to his injuries,” she said.
Homicide detectives say their investigation revealed a group of guys standing in a vacant lot fired several shots, hitting Coope.
“You see stuff that happens on the news, and you see families that go through, but you never expect it to come to your door,” she said.
Tamara says when her brother was killed, he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby.
“He was murdered June and he had a baby on the way that he never got a chance to meet, she’s a beautiful baby girl named D’aria,” she said. “It’s a child that he never got a chance to see or raise, that will grow up one day asking where is her dad, she won’t have a dad for dad’s and donuts, she won’t have a dad for father’s day, so my heart hurts for her.”
If you know who killed Detrich Coope Walton, you are urged to call CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH.
CrimeStoppers is offering up to $4,000 for information leading to Walton’s killer. All calls are confidential.
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