Dallas man convicted of 2 random murders possibly connected to 5 other shootings, records reveal
Convicted Dallas murderer could be linked another murder, police say
A Dallas man convicted of two random murders might be connected to a third murder as well as four additional shootings that left people wounded. Dallas police have been investigating Sheffield’s possible involvement in other unsolved cases happening before the two murders.
DALLAS - A Dallas man convicted of two random murders might be connected to a third murder, as well as four additional shootings that left people wounded.
Investigators say there was seemingly no motive behind the two murders Kevin Sheffield carried out in the spring of 2022.
Case files obtained by FOX 4 reveal Dallas police have been investigating Sheffield’s possible involvement in other unsolved cases that happened before the two murders.
Kevin Sheffield murders
Kevin Sheffield
The backstory:
Kevin Sheffield is serving a 50-year sentence for two murders in which he had no known connections to the two victims.
FOX 4 obtained never-before-released body camera footage showing officers confronting and arresting Sheffield.
In the body camera footage, Sheffield is questioned by Dallas police officers because he's parked in a fire lane.
Sheffield senses something is off and wonders if there's more than a parking issue.
Officers had been tracking Sheffield for several days because the Chevy Malibu he was driving was connected to two random murders.
On May 17, 2022, Joseph Syas was walking down Eastridge Drive in Northeast Dallas when Sheffield, who was driving his mother’s Malibu, shot-and-killed the 65-year-old.
Those shell casings connected Sheffield to another random murder just three miles away. One month earlier, 64-year-old Mohamed Kamara was shot outside his Skillman Street apartment while leaving for work.
In September 2024, Sheffield pleaded guilty to both murders.
During sentencing, Judge Brandon Birmingham mentioned additional cases.
Connection to other shootings
Dig deeper:
Dallas police and prosecutors would not discuss those still-unsolved cases with FOX 4, but after obtaining hundreds of pages of case files, FOX 4 has uncovered that a box of ammunition and loose rounds found inside the Chevy Malibu might connect Sheffield to five additional shootings.
In Northeast Dallas, four people were wounded. One person was killed.
A map related to ballistics data in Sheffield’s case file groups together the seven shootings. All of which were outside and in the same general area. Including the two murders that Sheffield has already pleaded guilty to.
Timeline:
The shootings began on Christmas Eve 2021 when someone was shot in the leg on W. Ferris Branch Boulevard.
The next month, someone was shot in the arm while getting into their car off Ridgecrest Road.
12 days later, someone parked in a vehicle was shot off Larmanda Street and on Valentine’s Day 2022, when someone was shot on Skillman Street.
In these four shootings, the victims survived, but there was also the murder of 61-year-old Lisa Avery off Whitehurst Drive on the day before Valentine’s Day in 2022.
Avery was found dead in the street. A case document reads: "fired cartridge cases recovered at the scene […] matched fired cartridge cases […]at […] the other shootings."
Two months later, Kamara was murdered by Sheffield.
In Kamara’s case, the Dallas Police Department never issued a community alert despite similarities in the unsolved shootings, including one of the shootings also happening in Kamara’s Skillman Street apartment complex.
The department also never posted about Kamara’s murder on its blog site, as it typically does with murders.
One month later, Sheffield went on to murder Joseph Syas.
In Sheffield's case file, police noted that Lisa Avery was "killed in a similar manner as […] Syas."
There’s no telling if a community alert could have changed Joseph Syas’ path that night or if it could have caused Sheffield to lie low.
FOX 4 also obtained documents showing the Dallas Police Department was investigating these possible connections but did not warn the public.
Dallas police's transparency
What they're saying:
After FOX 4 began questioning the Dallas Police Department’s transparency, the department emailed a statement:
"Prior to 2022, not all homicides were posted on the blog. It is now our standard practice to release the preliminary information about homicides or suspected homicides."
Since Joseph Syas’ murder is the case which led to Sheffield being caught, his niece, Tamara Syas believes his death may have prevented future shootings.
"Who's to say if that was put out, he might not have been out there," said Tamra Syas. "Because it was his killing that connected it and got Kevin off the streets."
What's next:
Sheffield is now 23 years old and is projected to be released from prison in 2072, but he’s eligible for parole in 2047. At that time, he will be 45 years old.
Police say the investigation into Lisa Avery's murder is still ongoing.
Investigators confirmed that Sheffield is a person of interest in the four shootings in which the victims survived, but the cases are suspended.
The Source: Information in this article is provided by the Dallas Police Department and previous FOX 4 coverage.