“The phone call was — it rocked my world,” Felton Tate Jr. told Dateline.
It was July 9, 2008. Felton, who was 18 at the time, received a call that his father, 40-year-old Felton Tate Sr., had been shot outside his home in Beauregard, Alabama. Felton Jr.’s parents had been divorced since he was little and he was staying with his mother at the time.
“I got the call, drove over to our family plot where all of his brothers and sisters lived,” Felton said. “Once I got there, I just immediately was in shell shock.”
The scene was surreal to the teenager. “To see all of the lights, see the EMS and just… there was at least 50 police officers that were on his property,” he said.
Felton quickly learned the events of his father’s last day. Felton Sr. had been training for a new position at the Kia plant less than an hour away in LaGrange, Georgia. “That evening he was there at the training course,” his son said. “They have the video footage of him walking out to his car and all of that. But along the way [home], he got a phone call from [his wife] asking him to go grocery shopping.” Dateline has not seen the video footage of Felton Sr. from that day. Dateline also tried to contact Felton Sr.’s widow for her recollection of the day but has not yet received a reply.
According to Felton Jr. the call to get groceries was at around 7 p.m. and after a quick stop at the store, his father arrived at home.
“As he was getting ready to unlock the side door, someone came… and just basically ambushed him,” he said. “My dad was shot somewhere between seven and nine times — just all throughout, like, the chest.”
The neighbors, mostly comprised of Felton Sr.’s family members, all lived within earshot. “Everybody came out of their house, like, ‘What’s going on?’” Felton Jr. told Dateline. “Someone had even said, like, ‘I just saw Felton pulling up. I waved at him. I was hoping he was going to stop but he just kept going to the house and in a few seco— a few minutes later, we heard the gunshots.’”
Felton Jr. says some of the witnesses saw the shooter retreating from the scene. “They also walked out of their house to witness a man running up my dad’s driveway, hopping into a Crown Vic — a white Crown Vic,” he said. In the aftermath of the shooting, according to Felton, a couple of people said they had seen the car around before. “They noticed that it was driving around the neighborhood, casing the area,” he said. “For at least a day or two before the shots happened.”
The witnesses quickly dialed 911.
Dateline spoke with Roger Tate, who is Felton Sr.’s younger brother. Roger was still at work at the time of the shooting. “He was laying on the porch. They called 911. Police, ambulance came down,” he was told. “He had got transported to the hospital by the time I get there.”
He never saw his brother alive again. “He passed after he got to the hospital,” Roger said.
“Unfortunately, he died on the operating table,” Felton Jr. said. “It was too much damage and deep injuries.”
But before he died, Felton Sr. was able to speak briefly to authorities.
“My father’s firsthand account — he told one of the responding officers and, I believe, his brother Ricky, that — he gave the description of the guy,” Felton Jr. said. “He said himself he had never seen the man before,” but said the shooter was a Black man with dreadlocks.
Rick Tate has since passed away. His brother Roger says Rick was also able to speak with their brother Felton before he succumbed to his injuries. “He said when he opened the screen door to unlock the door, someone said, ‘Hey.’ And he turned around,” Roger told Dateline. That’s when the man began shooting. Roger also confirmed that Felton Sr. told Rick that he did not recognize the man.
Dateline reached out to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office for more information about Felton Tate’s case. The chief investigator, Captain Jimmy Taylor, told Dateline in an email that his office is actively investigating Felton’s case and will not be releasing any information at this time.
Sixteen years later, the Tate family is at a loss for what to do. They think there has to be more to the story than it being a random shooting. “I want there to be more exposure for the case,” Felton Tate, Jr. said. He feels that’s their only chance to get the answers they need.
Roger Tate thinks back to one of the last times he saw his older brother. It was at a family get-together for the 4th of July just days before Felton, Sr. was killed. “We all — we get together,” Roger said. “When the kids were younger, we shot off fireworks.” Felton was acting the way he always did. “He was happy. He was just being himself,” Roger said. “Nothing was bothering him or anything like that.”
“He was a good guy. I mean, anytime I need to talk to him and lean on him for anything he was there for me,” Roger said of his older brother. And Roger wants to be there for Felton, Sr. — to get justice.
Felton’s namesake is also hoping for that. “He did not deserve to be murdered,” son Felton Jr. said. “Whoever murdered him, they — one thousand percent — should be prosecuted.”
If you have any information about the murder of Felton Tate, please call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 334-749-5651.
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