Wichita man sentenced for shooting homeless people he thought were drug cartel hit men
A Wichita man who gunned down two homeless people he mistakenly believed were drug cartel members planning to carry out a hit on him has been sentenced to 15 years, two months in prison.
Wichita police at the time of the Oct. 13, 2019, shooting said Dexter L. Solomon might have been in the throes of a mental health crisis spurred by drug use when he confronted and fired at a 50-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman walking along Broadway near Lewis in downtown on their way to breakfast and Sunday morning church services.
Both victims survived, although the woman was in grave condition immediately after the shooting, police said previously.
Prosecutors originally charged Solomon with two counts of attempted first-degree murder that alleged he “ran down” the pair and shot them with a handgun — as well as one count of criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, court documents show.
Solomon shot the man five times in the arms and legs, police have said.
He fired once at the woman, striking her in the back, they said.
In calls to his daughter, 911 dispatch and a local television news station, Solomon confessed to shooting the pair, whom he believed were members of what he described as “the Wichita Cartel,” according to a probable cause affidavit released in the case last month.
He said he thought they had “placed a ‘contract on his head’,” the document says.
After the shooting, Solomon hid his gun under a red lawn mower tractor in someone’s backyard, the document says. He didn’t know the victims.
Solomon, 47, pleaded guilty to two amended counts of aggravated battery and the single weapons charge on Feb. 17, court records show. He was sentenced last week.
Solomon’s defense attorney in a April 7 written motion asked the court to order probation instead of prison, saying that Solomon was “remorseful for his conduct,” was willing to seek drug and mental health treatment and “does not pose a risk to society” as long as he continues “caring for his mental health.”
But Judge Jeffrey Syrios denied the request and ordered the 182-month prison term, according to court records.
