A 16-year-old boy is facing a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his father at their West Side home Monday night.
Frank Dawkins Jr., 43, a Raytheon Missile Systems employee, was shot near South La Cholla Boulevard and West 36th Street at about 10:15, said Sgt. Decio Hopffer, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. His wife and 13-year-old son also were home, but they were unharmed. Dawkins died at a hospital.
Police records show his adopted son, Ian Michael Dawkins, was reported as a runaway Friday. He was found Monday around 4:30 p.m. Police went to the Dawkinses' home Monday afternoon concerning the runaway case.
The teen was a "habitual runaway," Hopffer said, having been reported as a runaway several times in the past three years, court records show.
A year ago, Frank Dawkins told a Pima County Juvenile Court judge that he was concerned about Ian's history of running away, court records show.
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After Ian Dawkins was contacted by police Monday, he left home again Monday evening and returned that night with a friend, Antoine M. King, 17, who also was arrested in connection with the shooting, Hopffer said.
Both teens were booked into the Pima County jail Tuesday on first-degree-murder charges. Police would not say who they suspect did the shooting.
Ian Dawkins was scheduled to face a Juvenile Court judge this month regarding a misdemeanor shoplifting charge stemming from the theft of CDs from a Target store, according to Juvenile Court records.
Now he and King will face charges as adults. The motive for the shooting is unknown, Hopffer said.
Ian Dawkins was expelled from school in October and has been on and off juvenile probation since he was 13 years old, court records say.
In August, he was unsuccessfully discharged from VisionQuest, a program for juvenile delinquents that is an alternative to incarceration.
The shooting Monday was the 23rd homicide in the greater Tucson area this year. By this time last year, there had been 27 reported homicides.
