A us-regions father is crime after a teenager he’d ordered to stay away from his 14-year-old daughter allegedly snuck into her bedroom window with a ladder and shot him during a confrontation, according to local police.
The Zachary Police Department said Nicholas Mcquirter, 17, allegedly shot Dezmon Hamilton, 34, multiple times. Authorities said the two exchanged gunfire and the suspect was also wounded.
Mcquirter was hospitalized in critical condition and is being charged with second-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon and possession of a stolen firearm. A booking photo was not immediately available. Police said they expected to formally arrest him once he is released from the hospital. He was not yet listed on the parish jail roster Wednesday evening.
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It happened around 8 a.m. Monday on Hayfield Drive in Zachary.
“It starts at home,” Zachary Police Chief David McDavid told local media. “These young kids gotta learn respect, how to treat people, and learn how to deal with conflict resolution.”
After Hamilton caught the teen in his house, the girl’s mother and grandmother took the 14-year-old over to the side to have a talk with her, McDavid said. As that happened, Mcquirter and Hamilton got into an argument.
“And then gunshots were fired,” McDavid said.
He described Hamilton, the victim, as a “young entrepreneur” who earned a living in Zachary and the surrounding communities.
A local graphic designer, Carl Gipson, wrote on Twitter that he’d done business with Hamilton.
“One of the clients of our design business, Dezmon Hamilton, was murdered Sunday morning,” he wrote. “We designed the layout of a snowball stand and car wash he was building in Zachary.”
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He said they spoke frequently and met several times.
“At the last meeting, I just remember the look of excitement he had when he realized it was really going to happen and that he had jumped one of the final hurdles to get it done,” he wrote. “This is very sad. His mother had come to a few of the meetings and she was so happy for him.”
Hamilton had four children, according to a death notice placed in the Advocate. A fifth child, Dezmon Jr., died at 6 years old in 2014.
