Original subtitles

[low tense music]

♪ ♪

[siren wails]

- absolutely crazy.

- Tonight on "the first 48: Critical minutes"...

- It's beyond reckless.

- A barber's shift turns deadly...

- He was doing his job,

and he got caught up in something stupid.

- A man's lunch break ends in murder...

- This is a very cold-blooded murder.

Alex was just getting started out in life.

- A grandmother attacked in her house...

- Her body's beat up pretty bad.

♪ ♪

- and a mother's luck turns from bad to worse.

Ok?

- [sobbing]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- every detective has worked cases

where a murder was just a tragic moment of bad luck.

♪ ♪

these are some of the worst cases for investigators,

because the victim would still be alive

if they hadn't been in the wrong place

at the wrong time.

In our first case,

a tulsa barber was just finishing up his shift

when someone came in with an ak-47.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

how many folks were in here

in you guys' best guesstimate?

- Ok, first booth,

you have your barber and your customer.

The second booth, barber, customer.

And then the third barber,

he was cutting a three-year-old's hair.

♪ ♪

male narrator: Almost a dozen people were in the shop

at the time of the shooting.

Four of them were hit.

♪ ♪

- jessie, you got the victim's name?

- Keith liggins. You got him?

He's a barber here.

♪ ♪

narrator: 41-year-old keith liggins

was born and raised in tulsa

and worked as a barber for many years.

He's survived by his brother and longtime girlfriend.

♪ ♪

one hour in...

Narrator: The team gets a lead.

- They're saying that it may have been the suspect vehicle.

Narrator: A witness told patrol two suspects

fled the scene in a dark suv that was leaking fluid.

- Yup.

I can tell you it's a screwed-up deal so far.

♪ ♪

narrator: Patrol officers will follow

the radiator fluid trail.

- It's gonna be a long night.

[engine turns]

♪ ♪

you've got multiple injured.

You've got one gentleman deceased.

But whoever did it, they just ran in there

and just didn't have a care in the world,

and it's absolutely crazy.

♪ ♪

[cell phone rings]

homicide. Brown.

Narrator: Patrol calls brown with good news.

- Really?

Narrator: They've traced the radiator fluid

to a black suv parked a few blocks from the crime scene.

- It could be case-breaking. Huge.

- We need to search that car.

♪ ♪

[low ominous music]

♪ ♪

- we're swabbing this to hopefully collect

some contact dna from someone that would've driven the car.

There's a towel on the floor. There's some receipts.

There's a little electronic scale.

They practice safe sex. There's a condom.

♪ ♪

wow, I've never seen that before.

It's nice of them.

They left their oklahoma id card.

♪ ♪

chadrick lamont colbert.

It's exactly what we wanted to see.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- so what happened?

- [clears throat]

narrator: Chad says the man who was sitting

in keith's barber chair threatened him.

- And what did you take that to mean?

- Ok.

- So why does he not get along with you or like you?

♪ ♪

narrator: Chad claims that his cousin,

dezmen "dash" smith,

and the man who threatened him are members of rival gangs.

♪ ♪

- did you think it was a bad idea when you saw the chopper?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[dog barking]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- for an incident that happened at the barbershop.

- I was at work when it occurred.

- Did you go anywhere after that or...

- I was at home.

- Did you stay home all night?

You maybe watch "dancing with the stars"

or something like that? - Nope.

- You never went up to the barbershop, though?

Wow, that's odd.

What--what are you claiming?

- What you mean, what am I claiming?

- You already got me booked.

It's over. You know what I mean?

- Ok. - You know my background.

Narrator: Dezmen is allegedly a member of the hoover gang.

- So when did hoover and neighborhood

start going to the same damn barber?

- [bleep], I don't [bleep] know.

I was never in that barbershop, man.

- We did a search warrant on your house.

And guess what we found? - What?

- Ammunition. - Mm-hmm.

- Guess what that ammunition matches?

- What?

- Ammunition at the murder scene.

- Where in my house?

- Grandma's bed.

- So you got a ak-47-toting grandma?

♪ ♪

- no.

- So where'd you put the gun?

- What gun, I have no gun-- - the ak-47.

The draco. Where'd you put it?

- I have no ak-47, man.

Man, I had one. - You had one?

- I had an ak-47. - How long ago was that?

- A long time ago.

- Do you know keith? - Yes, man.

He cuts my hair, dude.

- So you feel any remorse for killing him?

- I didn't kill him, man.

It's [bleep] up he dead,

but I didn't kill that man, man.

♪ ♪

- dash, you're going to jail for--for murder.

- Mm-hmm.

- And three counts of shooting with intent to kill.

- Mm-hmm.

♪ ♪

[door shuts]

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

- mr. Liggins was doing his job of cutting hair,

and he got caught up in something stupid

as rival gang members seeing each other,

and "you can't disrespect me, you can't do this and that."

♪ ♪

[tense music]

- [indistinct]

♪ ♪

pposed to be a safe haven.

In this next case from atlanta,

a young man came home for lunch and wound up murdered.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[birds chirping]

narrator: On the fourth floor...

[tense music]

- [sighs]

♪ ♪

narrator: 30-year-old alex newton

was born and raised in thomson, georgia.

The middle child in a tight-knit family,

he studied mechanical engineering,

then moved to atlanta two years ago

to join his brother's construction company.

Alex lived with his girlfriend

and planned to propose in a few months.

♪ ♪

narrator: Near the victim,

detectives find four .38 caliber casings

and a black hat.

- We gotta collect that.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: Detectives scour the complex for surveillance.

♪ ♪

narrator: They find a doorbell camera

down the hall from alex's apartment.

- I wanna go talk to the neighbor.

Narrator: Detectives hope to download the neighbor's video.

Narrator: Detective david quinn interviews

another neighbor who was with alex when patrol arrived.

♪ ♪

narrator: He says alex realized

someone was still inside and ran in to confront them.

♪ ♪

[bleep].

♪ ♪

- yeah.

This just happened to be

the worst time for him to come home.

For him to get gunned down right in his front doorway

is just terrible. It's just tragic.

♪ ♪

the neighbor had video. It's right here.

Narrator: Kleinhenz starts the video at 12:45 p.M.,

a half hour before the 911 call came in.

♪ ♪

- this has got audio too.

The victim's is down two doors on the left.

♪ ♪

he's got a hat on.

♪ ♪

- so he's covering his face.

♪ ♪

narrator: Ten minutes before the 911 call,

the man approaches alex's apartment.

♪ ♪

[door thuds]

- bang.

- Sounds like the door's getting kicked in.

♪ ♪

he kicks in the door right around 1:05.

Based on the timeframe, alex is on the way up,

but he came from the opposite direction.

♪ ♪

- whoa.

- He's running from the crime scene at 1:11.

♪ ♪

surgical mask.

- That's the person that killed him.

He's running back without hat.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪

- the hat looks exactly like the one from the crime scene.

Probably dropped it during the fight.

Narrator: Kleinhenz will have the hat tested

for contact dna.

♪ ♪

[brisk tense music]

♪ ♪

- we got an email from the gbi.

♪ ♪

looks like they got a dna profile off the hat.

♪ ♪

it says dna evidence in this case

has been linked to jeffries scott anderson.

♪ ♪

- in many homicide cases,

a victim's murder is unintentional.

And not only has someone taken an innocent life,

they've also destroyed their own life in the process.

In atlanta, a man was shot during a home invasion,

and dna from the suspect's hat led to an identification.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- all right.

You think you wanted to talk to me today

for a little bit? - You know, what's going on?

- I mean, they charged you with the burglary,

but they also have you charged for murder.

- For what?

- For the murder a couple weeks ago.

♪ ♪

the dna from the hat was analyzed,

and it matched your dna.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- [clears throat]

I don't think that you intended for it to go down like this.

I think you were just trying to commit a burglary.

And then two gentlemen

come home for lunch and get surprised.

And I think you were just trying to get away.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- ok.

♪ ♪

alex was just getting started out in life,

and it got cut short.

But I hope the family have some peace of mind

that the person responsible is in prison.

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪ ♪

- cases that involve victims of circumstance

are some of the most senseless murders detectives investigate.

In this next case, when a woman was unable

to reach her elderly mother in dallas,

a patrol unit responded

and found the caller's mother murdered.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- yes.

Narrator: The victim, 79-year-old avanell cowgill

had two daughters and was a great-grandmother.

She lived alone since her husband died four years ago.

♪ ♪

- her body's beat up pretty bad.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

narrator: The victim appears

to have been beaten and strangled.

♪ ♪

narrator: The medical examiner

believes the victim has been dead for three days.

- [sighing]

♪ ♪

- such a clean house

that evidence is gonna be just glaring at you.

♪ ♪

all kinds of jewelry in here.

♪ ♪

I don't know that they took anything.

♪ ♪

narrator: Then...

- We got no purse.

Like, a purse or a wallet with id or anything.

If they took anything, they must have taken that.

♪ ♪

narrator: When patrol arrived,

they found no signs of forced entry.

♪ ♪

- could not find a wallet or purse or anything.

So that--that's gonna be a big clue right there.

If I can find her credit cards and see where they were run...

- Yeah.

Nobody deserves to die like that, especially grandma.

Like I said, man, that's--that's my mom.

My mom lives by herself,

and her house is exactly like that.

This could happen to anybody.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

how are you, sir? - I'm good.

- I appreciate you. - You wanna come in?

- Is that ok--yeah. - Yeah.

- Sit down, guys. - I'm glad you called.

- He came and knocked on my door.

- Mm-hmm.

Narrator: He says on Thursday afternoon,

the day of the murder,

a door-to-door salesman came to his home.

♪ ♪

- he was selling some kind of cleaner.

I told him I'm not interested in this.

- Yeah.

- Then he turned around, and was furious.

He was so angry,

I wouldn't have stepped out in the yard with him.

- Yeah.

Describe him to me.

- Kind of a medium to smaller guy.

- Short guy, yeah. - Short hair.

He's--he's a black gentleman. - Ok.

- Dark clothes, and he had a blue,

like, a backpack-looking deal with him.

- Ok. Thank you, sir.

[dramatic music]

hotel 125.

[indistinct speech]

♪ ♪

- while detective scott sayers

waited to hear about the door-to-door salesman,

he looked into the victim's missing credit cards.

♪ ♪

- ok. I got a really good tip.

Somebody charged $897.

Narrator: The victim's card was used

at a nearby department store.

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

- how fast can you drive?

Narrator: Sayers and detective steve david

head out to the department store

hoping to get video of their suspect.

♪ ♪

- come on, steve. Let's--let's sprint up there.

♪ ♪

cross your fingers.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Sayers is in luck.

- I have a receipt.

It looks like the suspect purchased an ipad

with avanell cowgill's bank card.

So, based on the time of the purchase,

I got some surveillance footage.

Hopefully we can get a good image

of who our suspects are gonna be.

Narrator: Then sayers notices another camera

at a fast-food restaurant next to the department store.

- I wanna go back to headquarters and see if I can

get a good image of what my suspect looks like.

♪ ♪

[sighs]

- all right, let's look at this one first.

- Yeah.

Narrator: The team cues up the department store video

to the time of the ipad purchase.

♪ ♪

4:00 a.M., just hours after the murder...

- That him? - And, um...

Narrator: A man uses the victim's credit card

to purchase an ipad.

- Can't never see his face.

Narrator: The team turns to

the fast-food restaurant's footage,

hoping to get a better shot of their suspect.

- Go, come on, baby.

♪ ♪

- there he is.

Narrator: They spot him walking to a car.

♪ ♪

narrator: Then detectives notice something else.

- Man, we've got two people.

Narrator: They spot a second man with the suspect.

♪ ♪

- here he is. Just getting out.

- Driver gets out and goes in. - Yeah.

Narrator: The second suspect

goes into the fast-food restaurant.

♪ ♪

- that's a good video.

- That one needs a name.

- These two white males are gonna be my suspects,

so that pretty much rules out the black male

who was going door to door selling products.

I'm gonna release the video of these two white males

to the news media,

and hopefully somebody out there will recognize

these two guys and they'll give me a call.

♪ ♪

tives, we talk to many witnesses

and we have to sift through numerous leads.

Sometimes, we're pointed in the wrong directions.

- Sit down, guys.

- Which is why thorough investigation are so crucial.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sayers has an idea on how to track down

the ipad purchased with the victim's bank card.

- I know the serial number for the ipad

that was purchased from the receipt.

If the ipad accessed the internet,

I can call the manufacturer, and see if they can give me

the different addresses of where it was logged on.

I mean, it's a long shot,

but it might lead me directly to the suspect.

I did a court order for the ipad, sent it off.

Could take two, three weeks.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

this is big news.

Maybe the suspect sold the ipad there for some cash.

Sometimes these places require, before you sell something,

that you have to show id.

Hopefully, they've got his driver's license,

which would tell me who this guy is.

♪ ♪

hey. I work dallas homicide.

Narrator: Sayers asks the staff

to check their inventory for the ipad.

♪ ♪

- that's it? [sighs]

- you got a name?

♪ ♪

- yeah. - Oh, beautiful.

- This is him, right here.

- Daniel brooks. - Yes, sir.

♪ ♪

- [laughs] - awesome.

Narrator: Detective brian tabor calls headquarters

to get a photo of their potential suspect.

♪ ♪

- that's him.

Narrator: Daniel brooks matches

the physical description of the man

in the department store video.

Brooks was arrested two days earlier

with a man named david herron

for allegedly robbing another elderly woman.

- Good odds of the guy that was with him then is the same guy

that he goes around doing burglaries or whatever with.

- If they're in tarrant county jail,

we just go snatch them tonight.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

narrator: Two hours later, brooks and herron

arrive at homicide from the tarrant county jail.

Sayers goes in to talk to daniel brooks.

[door creaks]

- all right, brother.

I know you've been doing some burglaries.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I-I'm not looking at burglaries, ok?

I'm a homicide detective.

- The most serious thing I've done here

is--is use the stolen credit cards.

That's the most serious-- serious thing I've done.

- Take--taken from a 79-year-old woman

that was murdered. - [indistinct]

that--that I didn't know about till much after the fact.

[dramatic music]

I think I'm done talking.

♪ ♪

- you're gonna be charged with capital murder.

♪ ♪

narrator: Sayers and detective rick duggan

go in to interview the second suspect, david herron.

♪ ♪

- well, I'll just tell you this.

We're--we're investigating a murder case.

And its trail has led us to you and your friend.

♪ ♪

this moment right now

is probably the most important moment in your life.

♪ ♪

just tell me what you know.

- If you didn't kill her, you need to tell us everything.

The loved ones that she left behind

deserve to know the truth.

And I believe the truth resides in you.

♪ ♪

- daniel was saying that he was gonna break into a house.

♪ ♪

narrator: On the day of the murder,

david claims that daniel asked to borrow his car

so he could burglarize a house for drug money.

- He said he rang the doorbell, thinking no one was home.

And I believe she answered,

and he said he was looking for his dog that was lost.

And she--she had said to him if he needed to look

for the dog in the backyard as well...

So she invited him in, and he went into the house.

♪ ♪

- did he tell you that he killed an old lady?

♪ ♪

- but when he had gotten back, I just had a bad feeling.

I specifically said, "did you hurt this person?"

he said, "no."

- did you notice any blood on his clothing

or on his body or... - I did not.

But when he pulled back in, he went to the trunk,

and I believe was, like, changing his shoes.

He had on some boots. He was putting on tennis shoes.

Narrator: He thinks the boots daniel was arrested in

were the same ones he wore the day of the murder.

- Ok.

[door creaks]

I gotta go to dallas county jail and get daniel's boots.

There's a possibility that there's blood on them.

♪ ♪

narrator: Two hours later, the boots that daniel

was arrested in arrive at homicide.

- Put some gloves on. Put some gloves on.

♪ ♪

- here it is. Blood.

- [indistinct]

- yeah, that's--

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[door creaks]

♪ ♪

- a crime of opportunity

can be incredibly difficult to solve.

Unfortunately, the victim does not always

come out of these encounters alive.

In this next homicide from miami,

a woman was killed when she happened to cross paths

with the wrong person at her storage unit.

♪ ♪

- unfortunately, we have a female

who just got shot and killed.

♪ ♪

first homicide in a year.

♪ ♪

- [clears throat] ok.

- What we got so far is basically

she was taking something out of the storage unit.

Narrator: The manager of the facility

said that the victim had been renting a unit

for the past month.

♪ ♪

- according to witnesses,

it looks like it was possibly a robbery.

♪ ♪

this woman was just out here at the wrong time.

♪ ♪

narrator: The victim is 55-year-old josline augustin.

Originally from haiti,

she was the mother of four children.

♪ ♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

- senseless. Really senseless.

♪ ♪

- if you look at the circumstances,

this poor woman--

and she's just a victim of opportunity.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

the best witness in the world right there is that camera.

♪ ♪

narrator: Detective orlando silva

checks to see if there's surveillance footage.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- this is the dvr of the video surveillance

of all the cameras.

Let's hope we get lucky.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- black gold over here.

♪ ♪

hopefully this is the key to our case.

♪ ♪

- look at it here. That's camera seven, right?

- Well, I can make it bigger.

- There she is. - That's her.

That's her coming out of it.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

- here comes a car.

♪ ♪

make a u-turn.

- Yeah, make the u-turn with that..

♪ ♪

- he's getting out right now. Off.

♪ ♪

- oh. - Ooh.

Narrator: The suspect grabs the victim's purse

and immediately shoots her.

♪ ♪

- wow.

♪ ♪

- no hesitation.

I mean, just shoots her instantly.

♪ ♪

- man, for nothing, man. For nothing.

♪ ♪

- go back.

- It's a mazda 626. - A mazda 626.

♪ ♪

narrator: Detectives are able to recognize

the make and model of the car,

a white, two-toned mazda 626.

♪ ♪

but cannot make out the license plate.

♪ ♪

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

- it's senseless.

I mean, she never puts up a fight.

She--she probably would've given the purse,

and they shoot her for no reason.

These guys are cold-blooded.

♪ ♪

now we know we're looking for at least two offenders.

Car rolls up.

Shooter gets out of the passenger side.

♪ ♪

we need to get these guys off the street now

before they do it again.

Inally led to an identification

of the alleged shooter of a mother of four.

[tense music]

detectives found him hiding in his girlfriend's apartment.

They brought them both in and confronted them

with the video of the murder.

♪ ♪

- I'm looking at the tape.

[sniffles]

- ok.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- get her out of there already. - Get her out, get her out.

♪ ♪

- let's go.

♪ ♪

- thank you. - You're welcome.

- In her own way, she had no idea

how well she got him to admit.

He's practically admitting it,

but, you know, you just need to get over that hump.

[suspenseful music]

- all right.

♪ ♪

- yes, sir.

♪ ♪

- [clears throat]

now let me ask you something. - Yes, sir.

Are you gonna be honest?

- Yes, sir.

- Ok, tell me. What happened?

- [breathes deeply]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

it started like this.

- Oh!

♪ ♪

- [sniffles]

♪ ♪

we was right there on 79th street.

- Mm-hmm.

- And we seen the lady. [sniffles]

and so it was like, "you wanna get 'em?"

I was like, "hey, yeah, come on.

Let's get her and go in."

so we turned down the street where she was at.

♪ ♪

and so he went down the street and turned back around.

Well, by it turning back around,

that put me on the side where she was on,

so I had to get out and get her.

- Ok.

♪ ♪

- so when I got out...

[sobbing]

- come on, son, I know you're feeling horrible about it,

and I'm glad to see that you're feeling horrible about it.

- What happened?

- So what happened?

- [sniffles, exhales]

♪ ♪

so we turned the car back around.

I had jumped out.

♪ ♪

and I ran up to her.

I'm like, "let me get this purse."

and I grabbed for the purse, but when I--

I had the gun in one hand like this, "let me get the purse,"

and I grab for the purse,

and when I went to pull the purse and take off,

she, like, pulled it back.

And by the process of her pulling back, I squeezed.

♪ ♪

I didn't even try to squeeze. I squeezed--

when I squeezed, I seen-- I seen it hit her,

and when I seen her fall,

I just grabbed the purse and ran.

♪ ♪

- did you mean to shoot her? - No, sir.

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

- who was driving?

- And what did you do with the purse?

- We--we threw it away

'cause there wasn't nothing in her purse.

- Ok. There was nothing in the purse.

You know why, right? - I don't know.

- 'cause she had no money.

She lost her job, ok?

She lost her house.

And that's why she put her stuff in storage.

Ok?

All right?

- [sobbing]

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

- probably the most disturbing part

about victims of circumstance

is that these people are everyday people.

You know, it's a barber,

it's a convenience store worker, it's your grandmother.

And there's no training that can ever prepare you

to knock on a door and tell someone

their loved one has just been killed.

Notifying a family of an arrest is bittersweet.

The person that did it is gonna go to jail,

but at the same time, they don't get their son back,

and they will never, ever be the same.

♪ ♪