DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A new video has surfaced two and a half years after a DeKalb County father’s murder.
It shows several people nearby when someone shot and killed him.
Demario Sanders, 28, died Dec. 17, 2022, after a shooting at an apartment complex called Abbington Reserve. It’s near Flat Shoals Road in DeKalb County.
In surveillance video, you can hear rapid gunfire. People in the parking lot stop in their tracks. You also see a black car speed away.
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It’s a video Sanders’ mother, Tomeika Sanders, has watched daily since his death.
“I’m hopeless, angry, disgusted,” Tomeika Sanders told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco. “That was my first son, my only son.”
Sanders was a father of two and a big brother.
At the time of his murder, he was working 12-hour shifts at a warehouse.
“He was a mama’s boy,” said Tomeika Sanders. “He went to work, he came home. He got two children. He just had a baby.”
He had just dropped groceries off at her apartment when family said someone shot him in the parking lot and stole his wallet.
“To know someone is walking around free that committed this, you know, terrible crime is unspeakable,” said Sanders’ stepfather, Edward Wheat.
Wheat said the family has not heard anything from detectives or spoken with a victim advocate since the crime.
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“At least let us know that you all have not forgotten about him,” said Wheat.
“We done called the chief of police,” said Tomeika Sanders. “I done came up here, the Lieutenant tells me she is going to get back to me, let me know.”
Channel 2 Action News reached out to DeKalb County Police Department to ask how many leads detectives have followed and if there are any suspects. Detectives did not elaborate but said there was no update.
Data shows since 2022, Dekalb County Police Department data shows there have been at least 425 murders since 2022, the year Sanders died. We are waiting for the number of those that remain unsolved.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson to find out if there is a staffing shortage that might contribute to a lack of communication with families grieving the loss of a loved one due to homicide.
We are waiting to hear back.
“I feel like the system failed me, failed my son, like he’s nobody. He is somebody,” said Tomeika Sanders.
They are taking matters into their own hands, sharing surveillance video, in hopes that someone remembers a clue and helps police make an arrest.
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