In the early morning hours of August 25, 2019, the life of 32-year-old Cordaro Deere, a Black male from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was tragically cut short. Just after 3:30 a.m., officers in the vicinity of the 900 block of Douglas Avenue heard gunshots. Upon investigation, they discovered Deere had been shot. He was immediately rushed to a local hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The news of Deere's death sent shockwaves through his family and the
Kalamazoo community. His fiancée, Connie Anderson, was left to plan a funeral instead of the wedding they had been looking forward to the following year. She described him as a loving father and partner with no known enemies, leaving his loved ones grappling with the senselessness of his killing.
Within days, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety made a significant breakthrough in the case. On August 28, 2019, detectives arrested 32-year-old Kevin Dixon at an apartment complex in the 3000 block of South Burdick Street. Dixon, also a resident of Kalamazoo, was subsequently charged with open murder, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
In April of 2022, Kevin Dixon was sentenced for his role in Cordaro Deere's death. He received a prison sentence of 50 months to 15 years for the discharge of a firearm causing injury or death. During the sentencing hearing, Deere's family members, including his cousin Audrianna Deere, delivered emotional victim impact statements, expressing the profound and lasting pain of their loss. While the legal proceedings brought a measure of closure, the motive behind the shooting remained unclear. In a statement before the court, Dixon apologized to Deere's family, expressing remorse and stating that he never intended for the tragedy to happen and that he shouldn't have been in possession of a gun that night.
