Son killed in north Sacramento shooting remembered by his father as ‘hero,’ ‘best friend’
Kenyatta Dawson Sr. sat quiet and calm in the gallery of a jail courtroom Thursday. His fiancée sat next to him as they waited for the arraignment of his son’s suspected killer.
“It’s because of who my son is that we are not completely destroyed.”
His son, 29-year-old Kenyatta Dawson Jr., was killed by “multiple gunshots” in a shooting Friday in South Natomas. The shooting left his passenger, who the elder Dawson called Eric, in a hospital with critical wounds.
Sacramento Police say shots were fired at Dawson’s car at 10:54 p.m. near Truxel and San Juan roads, striking him and his friend, and causing their vehicle to collide with another at the intersection. Occupants of the second car were not involved in the shooting and were uninjured in the collision, according to a department news release.
Dawson’s friend in the passenger seat, who was only identified by Kenyatta Dawson Sr. as Eric, was left seriously wounded. Three other people were also in the car at the time of the shooting, he said.
Police arrested two male suspects. One of them, Adrian Israel Castillo, 23, was arraigned Thursday for charges of murder and attempted murder in Sacramento Superior Court.
The other, a 17-year-old, was arraigned Wednesday.
Kenyatta Dawson Jr. was remembered as a true friend who always sought to bring peace to his family and friends, his father said outside the Sacramento County Main Jail where he attended the arraignment of the man suspected of killing his son.
“I want the world to know ... Kenyatta was committed not only to our family and staying together, but also committed to our community and keeping peace among his friends. And that was essentially his mission in life whether he got recognition for it or not.”
Kenyatta Dawson Sr. says he learned of his son’s death Saturday when he realized his son had not come home. He sensed something “terribly wrong” happened when he saw he had a missed call from his fiance’s son, who also was in the car at the time of the shooting.
‘I needed to get the facts’
Dawson, who lives in Citrus Heights, spent hours trying to find news about his son to little avail, he said, including talking to a Sacramento Police dispatcher who told him that if he needed an officer that bad, he’d have “to go outside and waive one down.”
After calling 911, a Citrus Heights officer responded to his home and helped him get in touch with Sacramento authorities, he said.
“I essentially waived them down on the phone with 911, telling them I had an emergency,” he said. “I didn’t care, I needed to get the facts.”
Dawson then received calls from a Sacramento County coroner’s detective and a detective with the Sacramento Police Department confirming the death of his son.
“I am his father and I loved him dearly,” Dawson said Wednesday. “I wasn’t just his father, we were best friends. ... Everybody understood that we were inseparable, so this is a tremendous loss for me.”
‘We don’t look at it as a tragedy’
His father said Kenyatta Dawson Jr. returned home from work Friday night, bringing his friend Eric along. The two young men had become close recently and Dawson told his father of his plans to mentor Eric and “adopt” him into the family.
Kenyatta Dawson Sr. said his son and Eric had been stopped by police in the weeks prior, and the officer told the younger Dawson that Eric had ties to a gang. He believed his son was helping the man separate from that life, he said.
“We don’t look at it as a tragedy because we know Kenyatta died doing what he did to protect people,” Dawson said. “I know that there is no greater sacrifice that a man can make than to sacrifice his own life for a friend. So for us, he is our hero.”
Sacramento Police spokesman Officer Karl Chan said investigators believe the shooting is an “isolated incident.”
Castillo, his hair died yellow blonde and a tattoo under his right eye, appeared in court for only a few minutes during an arraignment in which The Sacramento Bee was prohibited by the court from photographing his face. Sacramento Police, however, released his photo late Thursday.
Dawson and his fiancée then left the courtroom, faces fallen and sadness in their eyes.
“There was a lot of mixed emotion about coming,” he said. “... I don’t have feelings of bitterness or a desire to see something terrible happen to the people who harmed my son. However, I understand that justice in this matter is vital and I’m very thankful that the police department was able to make two arrests on this matter very rapidly so my family does gain a lot of comfort as a result of that.”
Kenyatta Dawson Jr. is survived by his parents, two sisters, and two brothers.
