AKRON, Ohio — Akron police continue their search for a killer who allegedly shot a father of five late Friday night in front of his own home.
Rayshawn Hamilton, 35, was gunned down around 11:30 p.m., moments after he pulled into his driveway on Noble Avenue in West Akron.
The victim's fiancee, Tia — who didn't want to give her last name — said Hamilton loved his children and enjoyed working on cars and playing video games.
"Whoever did this needs to be brought to justice. They need to be caught," Tia said.
Tia said her two children considered Hamilton to be their stepfather and his five biological children range from ages 9 to 17.
"Now they don't have a father because he was taken from them senselessly for no reason," she said.
Lt. Michael Miller said detectives are planning to search the neighborhood for possible surveillance video that may have captured the fatal shooting.
At this point, investigators do not have any description of the gunman and it's not known whether a getaway car was involved.
Miller said others could have been hurt in the shooting because at least one bullet whizzed into an occupied home next door.
"Recklessness, at the point, doesn't discriminate and certainly someone inside that neighboring home could have been injured. We're fortunate they weren't," Miller said.
There have been 15 homicides in Akron in 2021 compared to six from the same time period last year. Nine of this year's shootings are unsolved.
"That's always our goal to solve each and every homicide. I know the detectives and the investigators are working very hard to do that," Miller said.
Most of the killings have been the result of gunfire, so the department is intensifying efforts to get guns off the streets.
So far in 2021, 257 guns have been seized, compared to 181 guns from the same time period in 2020.
Miller stressed local and federal partners are teaming up with APD to find and confiscate weapons.
"Those partnerships and those efforts are underway and they have been for a very long time since the spike early in the summer," Miller said.
Miller said gun reduction is only part of the solution. He added more help is needed from the community to solve the murders.
To that end, Tia is urging anyone with information on Hamilton's murder to come forward.
"If the person who is watching has done this, turn yourself in," she said. "But it's a higher power that person has to deal with."
