Dad baffled after son accused of random Fort Worth murder. ‘He doesn’t like to hurt things.’
An 18-year-old suspect in the recent killing of a Fort Worth man has no history of mental illness or racist ideology, according to his father.
Decan Medeiros of Kettle Falls, Washington, was booked on a murder charge on Thursday, two days after the death of Lee Douglas at John Peter Smith Hospital.
Douglas, a 36-year-old father of five, was shot while walking to his car in what Fort Worth police called a random attack by a stranger outside of his place of work in the early morning hours of May 30.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram, Medeiros is also accused of firing a handgun at two of Douglas’ coworkers and an employee at a nearby warehouse, none of whom were injured. Medeiros has been in custody since he was arrested on May 31 on four counts of aggravated assault in connection to the shooting.
Medeiros’ father, Ricky Medeiros, said he is completely perplexed by his son’s situation.
“I think it’s weird as hell, to be honest,” he told the Star-Telegram on Friday. “The kid is gonna randomly get off a [expletive] plane, find a gun and then go execute somebody?”
His son had no history of mental health issues, Ricky Medeiros said, but he did have a counselor for a while to discuss issues related to his mother, who left the family when he was younger.
Decan Medeiros “got a little more distant” after the COVID-19 pandemic, his father said, but “he’s not a freaking killer like that. He’s not going to go [expletive] shoot somebody.”
He described his son as “like a hippie,” adding that “he don’t like to even eat meat, because he doesn’t like to hurt things.”
Fort Worth police have said that they are not investigating the shooting as a hate crime, but the family of Douglas, who was Black, has said they think that race could have been a factor.
“We definitely want to get down to the bottom of it,” Douglas’ sister Aushalay Meadows told the Star-Telegram in an interview Thursday. “I wanna know what the motive is. Like I just don’t understand how you just walk up to somebody and shoot them.”
Douglas, who worked as an electrician at Refresco Beverages at 15200 Trinity Blvd., was shot first in the back then again in the face after he fell to the ground, according to his family and the Tarrant County medical examiner.
A witness told police that Decan Medeiros unsuccessfully tried to enter the building before he began shooting. One of Douglas’ coworkers told police he saw Medeiros stand over Douglas and aim a black pistol at his head after he had shot him in the back, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The witness turned to yell for other employees who were outside on break to get inside the building and then heard another gunshot.
Decan Medeiros allegedly shot two more rounds at other employees of Refresco Beverages before crossing the street and entering an Oncor Electric warehouse, according to the affidavit. Four witnesses, including an off-duty game warden officer who was working as a security guard, gave consistent descriptions of Medeiros. He also shot three times at an employee operating a forklift in the Oncor warehouse, who jumped off the forklift and ducked for cover, the warrant states. Of the three additional victims who were shot at, two were Black men and one was Latino, according to the affidavit.
The security guard heard the first four gunshots and saw Medeiros trying to escape by cutting through the Oncor property, according to the affidavit. The guard asked the suspect what he was doing, and Medeiros replied he was “shooting squirrels,” the affidavit states. The guard pulled his gun and ordered Medeiros to put his hands up, but the suspect ran away and into the warehouse, he said.
Police searched one of three bags that Decan Medeiros was carrying with him during the shooting, the affidavit states. In the bag, they found a dark gray notebook filled with journal entries. It had the words “take notes” written on the front cover, with “take” written by hand and “notes” printed by design. The words “The Book of Taurus” were handwritten on the back cover.
Upon arresting Decan Medeiros about 1,500 feet east of the Oncor warehouse, police said, they found two boxes of ammunition that matched the type of bullets used in the shooting.
Decan Medeiros is currently in custody at the Lon Evans Corrections Center, part of the Tarrant County jail system, with bond set at $615,000.
Ricky Medeiros visited him in jail on June 7, but said that his son was “so high” that he was unable to have a meaningful conversation with him.
“He couldn’t even put a freaking sentence together,” he said. “His eyes were so dilated.”
When Ricky Medeiros asked his son’s attorney, Brad Shaw, where his son could have gotten the gun after getting off a flight at DFW Airport, Shaw told him, “Oh, this is Texas,” he said.
“So what does Texas just have [expletive] guns laying in the street everywhere over there, or what?” Ricky Medeiros said.
The shooting scene is in far east Fort Worth, about four miles south of the airport.
Shaw said in an email exchange that he was only recently appointed to Medeiros’ case and that he is in the process of investigating it.
“My client is presumed innocent of any charges that may be brought against him,” he said.
Ricky Medeiros works as a journeyman lineman and usually travels across the country in the summer to support his family.
Decan Medeiros had joined him working on power lines in Tennessee, instead of finishing high school back home, but regretted the decision after going out to meet his father. He was flying back to Washington to finish his classes and graduate on May 30 and had stopped for a layover at DFW Airport hours before Douglas was shot, according to his family.
Decan Medeiros did not know anyone in North Texas, his father said.
“That was his connecting flight,” he said. “We know nobody in Texas.”
Both the victim’s and the suspect’s families say they want answers.
“It’s hard, ‘cause I didn’t think four days after I graduated I would’ve lost my dad forever,” Douglas’ oldest daughter, 18-year-old Nevaeh, told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV. “... I don’t know what he (Medeiros) had going on at home, but you didn’t have to take my dad away from me.”
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 2:23 PM.
