Gunman Killed Parents, Niece In Omaha Triple Murder: Police

OMAHA, NE — Leonna Dalton-Phillip’s future was as bright as her smile. A straight-A student at an Omaha high school and co-captain of its drill team, the 18-year-old was full of happiness and promise on Christmas day, talking with her father, Claude Phillip, about which of several college scholarships to accept. California perhaps? They’d have plenty of time to decide, they determined. Phillip kissed his daughter on the forehead and told her he loved her when he dropped her off at her grandparents’ home later that day. She said she loved him, too, and gave him an embrace that lasted about a minute.

Now, the loving hug will have to last a lifetime. Dalton-Phillip and her grandparents, John Dalton, 70, and Jean Dalton, 65, were shot to death in the Daltons’ Omaha home Tuesday evening. The gunman, Omaha police said, was their son, John W. Dalton Jr., 46, who spent 11 years in prison for killing his wife before he was paroled in 2010.

The suspect was arrested Wednesday in Tennessee after a manhunt. Police haven’t disclosed a motive.

Phillip, who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, told ABC News that he hasn’t seen the suspect in years, but his daughter was suspicious of him.

“She just kinda felt he wasn’t right and she had the right feeling because she is gone by his hands. He did this and it hurts,” Phillip said. “I’m devastated. … I don’t know how I’m going to go on.”

Whatever provoked the attack happened quickly. Police have said Dalton-Phillip’s car was still running outside her grandparents’ home at 3912 N. 37th St. when they arrived. She had gone there to pick up her little sister, London, who is about 6 or 7, KETV reported. The little girl hid as her family was gunned down, then ran to a neighbor’s house about 7:30 p.m. and said, “They shot my family,” the Omaha World-Herald reported.

By all accounts, the Daltons were lovely people whose kindness was measured by the way they treated strangers. Phillip told the World-Herald that even though he is no longer with the girls’ mother, Jalisa Dalton, he’s still treated like family and his other children are treated like grandchildren.

Leona Dalton-Phillip lived with her mother, who Phillip said was “just in shock.”

“We all are,” he told the World Herald. “I can’t believe this is happened.”

Phillip said the world lost a luminary in his daughter, a strikingly beautiful young woman.

“She was so smart and bright,” he told the World Herald. “Last April or May, she won an essay contest on the Holocaust. There were 300 entries, and hers was the best one.”

John Dalton Jr. was captured by the U.S. Marshals Service on Interstate 40 in Jackson, Tennessee, Omaha police said in a statement. The arrest took place about 130 miles west of the spot where he was captured in 1998 after killing his 22-year-old wife, Shannon, in their Omaha home.

In that case, John Dalton Jr. had accused Shannon Dalton of having an affair with his father, according to court records.

Jean Dalton told police in 1998 that she and her husband confronted her son about his accusation. According to court records, when Jean Dalton knocked on the door, she wasn’t allowed in the house, but Shannon Dalton opened a window, and “immediately gave a sign with her hand indicating that John Dalton Jr. had a gun.”

The next day, Shannon Dalton was found dead with a single bullet wound in her head. John Dalton Jr. made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to manslaughter and weapons charges in 1999. His criminal record also includes convictions for delivery of cocaine, and leaving the scene of an accident and fleeing to avoid arrest in the early 1990s.

After his parole from prison, John Dalton Jr. lived close to his parents, just a couple blocks away, but the relationship was strained, Phillip told the World Herald.

“I don’t think (his parents) saw him a lot,” Phillip said. “Jean would try to talk to him, but she said he was never the same after he got out of prison.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo of John W. Dalton Jr.: (Omaha Police Department via AP)