More than a month after a local man was shot and killed at a southwest Gainesville apartment complex, police are still looking for the alleged killer.
“It’s like he just vanished,” said Gainesville Police Department spokesman Officer Ben Tobias. “And we would definitely like to see him arrested.”
On the morning of July 14, Larry Whitehead Jr. shot 37-year-old Samuel Hamilton in unit 4110 of Southern Pines apartment complex, according to witnesses who spoke with Gainesville Police detectives.
The 26-year-old then ran from the complex, located at 4125 SW 17th Place near the Woodlands apartments. Officers couldn’t find him even after a search of the area, according to police.
A friend of Whitehead’s told detectives that he could have fled to Miami, said GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias. However, the report is unconfirmed.
Lakeria Montgomery, a 22-year-old friend of both men, said she believes the murder was an act of jealousy. She was in an open relationship with Whitehead, who agreed to the arrangement, but when Montgomery started seeing Hamilton — whom she had dated before — Whitehead became almost obsessive, she said.
The morning of the murder, Montgomery was hanging out with Hamilton at the apartment. Whitehead started banging on the door while they were sleeping, she said, and a third friend let him in.
Whitehead walked back to the bedroom where Montgomery was nestled on Hamilton’s shoulder. There was no fight, no struggle, just a shot to the head — a swift execution. Montgomery said she was beside him in the bed the whole time and feared that Whitehead would shoot her, too.
“I told him, ‘I’m not the girl for you,’ and gave him the choice to leave,” she said. “You think you can make somebody love you, but you just can’t do that.”
However, Montgomery said she did love Hamilton, whom she remembers as a kind man, soft-spoken and subdued. They met through Montgomery’s mother about a year ago and became romantically involved. She met Whitehead later on, and the three of them used to hang out together as friends.
According to court records, both men had criminal backgrounds, which included armed robbery and assault charges.
But five weeks after the shooting, as Montgomery sat on the couch in her small apartment the next complex over from the murder scene, she said she never thought something like this would happen.
“I just want them to catch Whitehead,” she said through tears. “I just want answers.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/21/2013 under the headline "Close friend reveals details about July murder, at-large suspect"
