The 18-year-old man who fatally shot a Fort Worth man outside a warehouse during a layover at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on May 30 was acting strangely at the Chattanooga airport before flying to DFW, airport police said.
Decan Medeiros, of Kettle Fallas, Washington, was arrested on murder charges two days after the killing of 36-year-old Lee Douglas, who was shot at the Refresco Beverages factory at 15200 Trinity Blvd. in far east Fort Worth as he walked to his car after work.
According to a Fort Worth police arrest warrant affidavit, Medeiros tried to enter the building before he started shooting. Medeiros also shot at two of Douglas’ colleagues and an employee at a nearby warehouse, none of whom were injured, authorities said.
Mederios has been in custody since he was first arrested May 31 on four counts of aggravated assault in the shooting.
After their arrest, police said they found two boxes of ammunition in a bag Medeiros was carrying at the time of the shooting. The bullets in the bag matched the type used in the shooting.
His father, Ricky Medeiros, told the Star-Telegram he was completely stunned by his son’s arrest.
“I think it’s really weird, to be honest,” said Ricky Medeiros. ‘The child randomly gets out of one [expletive] plane, find a weapon and then execute someone?
Ricky and another relative of Medeiros, Rachel Benjamin, told DFW Airport police that although Decan had never received a medical diagnosis, he suffered from depression.
Benjamin contacted DFW Airport on June 2 and stated she had not heard from Medeiros. She said he flew to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to work with his father because of his “performance” at home, according to the DFW police report.
Benjamin told police that he used drugs such as marijuana, acid and hallucinogens before his trip.
She last spoke to Medeiros on May 29, the day he was scheduled to return home and fly to Spokane, Washington.
An American Airlines employee confirmed to police that Medeiros boarded his flight from Chattanooga to DFW, but never boarded his connecting flight to Spokane.
According to the report, Medeiros left Tennessee angry at his father. After his father told him he could stay with him to work or return to his home in Washington, Medeiros chose to return, the report said.
The 18-year-old was acting strangely and posting messages on Facebook, including one that read, “It’s hard,” his father said. Ricky Medeiros insisted his son was not suicidal.
The suspect could have left DFW Airport because of his behavior, his father told police.
Chattanooga Airport police said they approached Medieros on May 28 after receiving a suspicious-person call about a man running around shirtless and startling women, the report said. Officers said his behavior was “abnormal,” as he was sweating excessively and was incoherent when spoken to, the report said.
Agents at the Chattanooga Airport had to contact Medeiros’ father to book him a new flight after he missed his first flight to DFW on May 29.
His father told the Star-Telegram that Medeiros is not a “murderer,” but the family of Douglas, who was black, is asking Fort Worth police to investigate the shooting as a hate crime. The family believes race was a factor.
“We definitely want to get to the bottom of it,” Douglas’ sister Aushalay Meadows told the Star-Telegram in an interview. ‘I want to know what the motive is. Like I just don’t understand how you can just walk up to someone and shoot them.”
Medeiros remains in custody at the Lon Evans Corrections Center, part of the Tarrant County jail system, on a $615,000 bond.
