DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – The officers who responded to a domestic dispute in June have been suspended after an internal investigation, police said.
On Friday, Feb. 3, the Dayton Police Department announced that officers Terrell Moore and Kathryn Santos have been suspended for 160 hours and received written reprimands for mishandling a domestic dispute complaint on Burleigh Avenue in June of 2022.
Around 1:30 a.m. on June 23, 31-year-old Aisha Nelson called police in an attempt to get 31-year-old Dante Hawes to leave the home. Police spoke with the couple for approximately half an hour during which Nelson told officers Hawes had threatened her multiple times and owned a weapon. Officers allegedly left the scene without making an arrest, ordering one of the parties to leave the home or making a report of the incident.
An hour later, Nelson and her 6-year-old daughter were shot and killed.
Hawes was found dead in a car in Alabama with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Dayton Police Department investigated the officers’ actions and found that officers Moore and Santos should have not only completed a crime report but also should have seized the deadly weapon as contraband.
The officers have been suspended for 160 hours, DPD said, and they will be required to attend extensive domestic violence refresher training and tactical training as it pertains to domestic-related calls for service.
Two months prior, on December 6, the victims’ family members announced they were suing the City of Dayton and the Dayton Police Department, saying their deaths should have been prevented.
“It could have been prevented, but it wasn’t, so now we’re here and it’s unacceptable,” Aisha Nelson’s mother Keeley Nelson said.
