Christopher Whitt, 42, was booked into the Dallas County jail Friday morning on a murder charge.
By Jamie Landers
Dallas Morning News
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The man authorities have been searching for in connection with the slaying of Keisha Hillard earlier this month in Mesquite has been arrested, jail records confirmed Friday.
Christopher Whitt, 42, was booked into the Dallas County jail on a murder charge shortly after 7 a.m. Friday. His bail has not been set, and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
“This is not the end of the fight — but it is a major step toward justice for Keisha and protection for others,” Hillard’s family wrote Friday in a statement. “Please continue to keep Keisha’s children and our family in your prayers as we move forward through grief and the legal process ahead.”
Whitt’s arrest comes nearly two weeks after officers were dispatched on Oct. 12 for a welfare check at a home in the 2000 block of Avis Circle. Inside, they found Hillard, a 42-year-old mom of five, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
Police officials announced then that they needed the public’s help locating Whitt, whom they said had been in a long-term relationship with Hillard. They also shared two children: a 6-month-old, and Whitt’s 3-year-old son.
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Whitt dropped the children off at his father’s house in Pleasant Grove after the shooting, and told his father he believed he’d killed Hillard. His father then contacted Whitt’s sister, who called in the first of several welfare checks.
Whitt’s sister, according to the affidavit, met with Whitt in the parking lot of a restaurant later that night. Whitt told her he’d gotten into an argument with Hillard because she was “acting gangster,” and that she was upset because she believed Whitt “treated their children differently.”
Whitt also told his sister he’d never see her again, and planned to shut his phone off and kill himself, the affidavit said.
Police wrote in the report that the 3-year-old told forensic interviewers he witnessed the shooting, stating he was so close to the gunfire it hurt his ears. He also told Whitt’s sister: “My daddy shot Keisha.”
It was not immediately clear how officers ultimately found Whitt, but a Mesquite police spokesman said he was detained Thursday night in South Dallas.
Jamie Landers is a breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News. She is a graduate of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, where she studied journalism and political science. Jamie previously reported for The Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
