Corey Crosby, 28, a Black man, was caught in the thin, predawn quiet of January 11, 2020, when police rushed to the Hawthorn Suites at 7880 Alpha Road in Far North Dallas after a shooting call came in around 4:15 a.m. By the time officers reached the scene, they encountered a man suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, and Dallas Fire-Rescue pronounced him dead.
In the first hours after the gunfire, the details that surfaced were fragments—people describing a sudden burst of violence and then a quick escape. Investigators said witnesses reported seeing a Black male run from the location and leave in a white four-door vehicle, a description that became the early thread detectives pulled as they tried to reconstruct what happened outside the hotel. A public plea followed, including a request to contact the Dallas Police homicide unit and a Crime Stoppers reward offer tied to the case number 006998-2020.
News coverage that day identified the victim as Corey Crosby and described him as having been shot multiple times. The story, as it emerged, centered on that hotel address and the narrow window of time before dawn, when movement is sparse and any passing car can disappear into the freeway grid.
As the investigation advanced, reports said detectives focused on phone activity and eyewitness identification. According to an account citing law-enforcement developments, investigators traced a 911 call from the night of the shooting to a cell phone linked to Fredrick Cortez Walker and later had a witness identify him as the shooter in a photo lineup. With a warrant issued, Walker was stopped days later for speeding on Interstate 20 while heading east toward Louisiana, and he was detained after the stopping officer learned he was wanted in the homicide.
Walker, 31, of Monroe, Louisiana, was ultimately described in multiple reports as being held in the Smith County Jail on a murder charge connected to Crosby’s death. Separate jail-blotter reporting also listed additional charges at booking, including speeding and forgery of a government/national instrument/money/security, alongside the murder charge.
