In the fading daylight of a March evening in 2010, 17-year-old Dashanique Sutton, an African American female, was caught in a burst of violence that tragically ended her life. She was a passenger in a car with her 22-year-old boyfriend, parked on Central Street near West Warren on Detroit's southwest side, when an unknown assailant unleashed a spray of bullets at their vehicle.
A single shot struck Dashanique in the head, inflicting a fatal wound.
Her boyfriend, though injured, was able to flee the car and summon help from a nearby residence. The promising life of the young woman, however, was unable to be saved. Investigators who swarmed the scene in the aftermath came to a grim conclusion: Dashanique was not the intended target. The gunfire was believed to be a reckless chapter in an ongoing feud, a 'tit-for-tat' that had nothing to do with her. She was, by all accounts, an innocent bystander in a conflict that was not her own.
In the years that have passed since that devastating evening, the quest for justice for Dashanique has been met with a frustrating silence. No arrests have ever been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified in connection with her murder. Her case has grown cold, a painful and unresolved chapter in the city's history. In an effort to reignite the investigation, Crime Stoppers offered a cash reward for information leading to an arrest, a plea for anyone with knowledge of the crime to break the silence. Dashanique's mother has made emotional public appeals, her voice filled with the anguish of a parent searching for answers and a measure of peace. The case officially remains an unsolved homicide with the Detroit Police Department.
