‘Deserved justice’: Sister of 1992 murder victim has new hope after arrests made
A Statesville family finally has some answers 30 years after their loved one was shot and killed.
This month, investigators in Iredell County announced murder charges against two men for a deadly shooting and robbery from 1992. Police said two men died and another was hurt.
ALSO READ: 2 men accused of murder in Statesville cold case, police say
Channel 9’s Almiya White spoke with the family of one of those victims who shared their fight for justice.
What now sits as an empty lot still holds a lot of weight for Doris Allison.
“The house is no longer here, was considered a gambling place,” she told White. “This was a place that most people met.”
Those people included her brother, Willie Allison. But on the night of Sept. 25, 1992, that same place left Willie’s family with painful, lingering questions.
“We got a call saying there’s a shooting on Washington Street, and they said there was casualties,” Doris Allison said. “So when we arrived here, there was police and people standing out -- maybe 20 or 30 people -- and they call it out. Two names. And one of those names was our brother.”
For nearly 30 years, this case went unsolved. That is, until a recent break.
“We are very close now than we’ve ever been,” Allison said. “And it wasn’t shock because I’ve been disappointed so many times.”
Last week, Statesville Police Chief David Onley announced charges against two men: Reaco Wesley Burton and Sheldon Demetrius Summers. The pair faces charges for robbing and killing Willie and one other man. A third man was also shot.
Burton was already in custody on unrelated charges, but Summers was still on the run.
“We recently were able to extradite one of the suspects, Summers, from New Jersey,” Chief Onley said. “Once we were able to obtain warrants, we turned it over to the U.S. Marshals. Believe they were able to track him down somewhere in New Jersey. And then we’ve been going through the process of getting him back down here.”
Summers is being held in the Iredell County jail with no bond.
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Chief Onley credits the break in the case to a tip that former Statesville police chief Steve Hampton received.
“It was just a new piece of information we had never gotten,” Onley said. “And it wasn’t particularly that specific information. It was the track that that led him down that really was able to tie all of this together.”
Doris Allison said she never stopped hoping for answers in her brother’s death.
“We fought for our brother, we fought because he deserved justice,” said Allison. “And if he gets justice, everybody would get justice.”
And while she is a step closer to answers than she was 30 years ago, she still has questions.
“So we’re still looking for people to come forward,” she said. “Not be afraid now, because the two people they feared the most are the two people now that cannot, you know, may not be able to reach them or not reach them.”
The Statesville Police Department said retired Chief Hampton has been working as a part-time investigator on this case for five years. They said he put together a 4,000-page case file that helped investigators finally crack it.
(WATCH BELOW: Only on 9: Kannapolis detectives ‘aren’t giving up’ on cold cases dating back decades)
