Sunnyvale murder suspect arrested in Mississippi – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

It’s been a year since a getaway car gunman ambushed a family of five in Sunnyvale, killing a woman and injuring her adult brother and his three children.

Surveillance video shows a black sedan blocking a car in the parking lot of the Riverton Trail Townhomes at 201 Planters Road. A masked man runs out of the passenger side of the sedan and fires several shots at the parked car.

Tyesha Merritt, 27, of Mesquite was killed in the shooting. Her brother and his three children were seriously injured, but police said they are all now recovered. Merritt’s brother, police said, was the one who ran away.

Last week, Sunnyvale police announced that one of the suspects connected to the murder had been arrested in Mississippi.

Quantavius ​​Gomillia, 27, was transported by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office on June 27 and is currently in the Dallas County Jail charged with murder.

“We don’t necessarily know why he went to Mississippi, other than he was just trying to avoid us,” Sunnyvale Police Chief Bill Vegas said Monday.

Vegas said the suspect had been communicating regularly with a detective on another matter, but then communication was lost.

“Maybe he got suspicious or something, got a little nervous and fled to Mississippi, where his father is from,” Vegas explained.

Police did not disclose the relationship between the suspect and the victims, but believe it was a targeted attack.

“This is retaliation for an incident that occurred on May 29, shortly before the murder,” Vegas said of the suspect and the shooting.

To protect the investigation, he would not say where the incident occurred or what happened, except that it happened near Sunnyvale.

“It goes without saying that murder is always horrific when it is committed. Of course there are other ways to settle differences and the like, but murder should never be one of those ways,” Vegas said.

The chief thanks his detective and the partnership with the Mesquite Police Department and the Carrollton Police Department and the FBI for solving the case.

“He stayed alert all last year and kept pushing,” Vegas said. “This was one of those cases that never ended. He didn’t let himself falter.”

Vegas said he spoke with the victim’s family, who were “very appreciative” of the department’s efforts. He also spoke with the family of the injured children.

“I contacted the mother and grandmother of the children who were in the back seat and were shot. They are overjoyed that we caught the ‘bad guy’, as they call it, and he is in jail. I could hear the grandmother in the background screaming and crying tears of joy and so on. She was overjoyed.”

The boss said the injured children were physically much better.

“Understand that all three were shot, all three were in serious condition, all three survived and all three are doing well,” Vegas said.

Police continued to search for the second suspect who was in the car with Gomillia. It is unclear who the shooter or getaway driver was.

Anyone with information regarding this incident should contact North Texas Crime Stoppers at 1-877-373-8477. Tipsters may remain anonymous and are eligible for a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of one or more suspects.