Court records show police arrested a 26-year-old man accused of interfering with evidence at the scene of the deadly Sept. 29 shooting of a 20-year-old man at a house party in southwest Lubbock.
Dukiaious Childress, 26, was booked about 5 a.m. Sept. 29, into the Lubbock County Detention Center on a third-degree felony count of tampering with evidence, according to court records.
However, no arrests have been made in connection with the homicide investigation that began after Lubbock police responding about 12:45 p.m. to a shots-fired call at a home in the 5500 block of 76th Street found Deon Lilly lying in the street.
He was taken to University Medical Center where he died.
Investigators later learned that an 18-year-old woman was taken by private vehicle to UMC for a gunshot wound. A 16-year-old who suffered a cut was also taken by private vehicle to Covenant Medical Center.
Lubbock police officials said the residence, which was being rented online as a short-term vacation home, was being used to host a house party attended by hundreds of people between the ages of 16 and 20.
Lubbock police Lt. Brady Cross said Wednesday that police initially received a noise complaint regarding the party about 40 minutes before the shots fired call.
However, dispatchers were unable to send anyone to the earlier, low-priority call as patrol officers were stretched thin with other high-priority calls that night, including a stabbing, he said.
As officers worked to secure the chaotic scene and begin documenting potential evidence, two officers reportedly saw Childress approaching Lilly’s body, which was lying on the ground, stripped of clothing, according to an arrest warrant.
Childress reportedly picked up Lilly’s jacket and began searching through it, the warrant states.
The jacket was considered a piece of evidence that may contain forensic or other evidence valuable to the investigation at the time, the warrant states.
The warrant states Childress further compromised the scene as another officer believed that by moving the jacket, Childress may have also displaced a shell casing that was on it into the roadway.
The officer apprehended Childress, who was described as uncooperative and tried to pull away, prompting the officer to shock him with a stun gun before handcuffing him, the warrant states.
Childress, who had unrelated warrants, was taken to the Lubbock County Detention Center, where he was released on bond a few hours later.
Detectives with the Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit are still working to identify Lilly’s shooter.
A $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information that will lead to an arrest. Tipsters can call Crime Line at 806-741-1000.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: 1 arrested, accused of tampering with scene of deadly shooting at house party
Reporting by Gabriel Monte, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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