Updated: 11/4/2009 11:31:10 PM
Police call him a "totally innocent victim." His family calls him husband, father and grandfather.
Both want answers to the question of who killed him, and they are asking for the public's help.
Back on March 5, Lester Walton was visiting his mother on Ashland Avenue, a daily routine.
That night, the two of them, along with Walton's wife, Bernice, were watching television, flipping between the University of Tennessee Men's Basketball game and the Lady Vols game.
"It happened so fast. We just heard gunshots, and I just hollered, 'Hit the floor,' but I looked back and my husband was just still sitting there, and I knew then that he was shot," Bernice Walton said. "I called his name and touched him, but he didn't move."
Police said a group of teenagers, possibly in a maroon van, drove by the house and fired at least ten shots. Walton was struck through the window. He later died at the hospital.
"It was the worst night of my life, and my life has not been the same since," said Walton's daughter, Sherri Walton-Penson.
Police said the shooting was a tragic mistake.
Charles Lee, an investigator with the Knoxville Police Department, said the shooting was a retaliation linked to another drive-by shooting the previous night on Rosedale Avenue.
Lee said the teens were trying to target the house next door - a white house with green trim - but instead struck Walton's mother's house - a green house with white trim.
"They took my dad's life. They're going on with theirs, and it's very hurtful, and it makes me very angry," said Walton's daughter, LeRhonda Walton-Hill.
Almost immediately, police came up with a list of suspects, who turned out to be students.
"I have every reason to believe that it's all connected to the previous night's shooting and that there's numerous, numerous, whether they're still students at A-E, Austin-East, or whether they have graduated since last year, that know exactly who did this," said KPD Investigator Charles Lee.
The problem is that no one's talking enough to lead to an arrest, and a family is hurting.
"There's no winners in this at all," Walton-Penson said. "My dad is gone. Even if they were to be turned in, you know, their family's going to suffer, you know, too. It just never ends, never ends."
There is a $10,000 reward in the case, but police say that still hasn't given them the information they need to find closure in this case.
"As far as a homicide investigator, it's probably the worst case you can be in because you've got a totally innocent victim, and I'm hoping people start doing the right thing and letting me know what they know," Lee said.
Meanwhile, the family is making the same plea. The Waltons said they often meet people who know information they're willing to share with the family, but not with police.
In fact, Bernice Walton said a stranger came to her door the morning after the shooting and handed her a piece of paper with four names of the people reportedly in the van that night.
The Waltons said they can do nothing with that information. They, too, said the know the teen who pulled the trigger. They know his family, too.
They're asking the community to bring that information to police.
In the meantime, they're relying on faith.
"I have pity. I'm sad for the kid that pulled the trigger, but he's going to have to be held accountable eventually," Walton-Hill said. "It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but someday, he will be held accountable."
If you have any information on this case, you're asked to call the KPD Crime Hotline at 865-215-7212.
