AKRON, Ohio — There’s a noticeable void at the dinner room table whenever David Hall’s seven older brothers and sisters gather.
His empty chair symbolizes their loss. An absence that will never be filled. It’s been this way for 13 years, when the Akron man was found shot to death.
“I’ve taken the fact that he’s gone and won’t see him again,” his oldest brother Lawrence Hall said. “But it sure would be nice to know who did that. And it sure would be nice to know they got punished for doing that.”
What happened to David Wayne Hall the night of Oct. 9, 2005 seems random. Gunned down in cold blood as he rode his bicycle on the city’s near west side.
Hall’s body, underneath his bike, was found a mile from home, in a backyard along Bacon Avenue. His life ended with a single gunshot wound to the head. He was 44 years old.
“I heard about it and just, ya know, couldn’t believe it because, like I said, we’re a close-knit family and I couldn’t believe that one of our members was lost… like that?
“Murder? What’s more difficult to accept than murder?”
He wasn’t looking to turning his life around. By all accounts, David Hall was already a solid, good man. He didn’t use drugs and toxicology tests after his death affirmed that.
His smile was as ubiquitous as the street cleaning machine he drove for the Downtown Akron Partnership. He connected with business men and women. He was also studying to become a legal aid.
“He was a happy go lucky guy,” a sibling recalled around the dinner table of older sister Amy Barnes.
“He was always positive, he was always up.”
Women loved him. Men respected him, Barnes said.
The night he died, he was riding his bike about a mile from his apartment. Why he was there late at night is uncertain. He wasn’t robbed. He wasn’t mugged. He wasn’t in a fight. He never had a chance. It appears he was shot and then rode into the backyard and collapsed.
To Hall’s family, the lack of witnesses and an arrest is as difficult to accept as his death.
“And we’ll never have closure until that happens and just the idea of knowing who did it,” Lawrence said. “And also, why? That’s a big deal. Why?
“A guy like this, who doesn’t bother anybody, a guy like this who goes about living his life making people happy, making people feel good… Why?”
Akron police detectives say they empathize with Hall’s family. Despite their efforts, they have no suspects. No magic DNA. Frankly, there’s little physical evidence.
Just a bullet, David’s body and his bike.
“But unfortunately, we’re no closer to solving this than we were in October 2005,” Lt. David Whiddon said. “It’s hard because there’s not a lot to go on, just people floating their names out there.”
As the cold case languishes, his family pushes forward. They can only hope that a guilty conscience sparks a tip for justice David.
“If you knew David, all you could do is shake your head because whoever done that, they didn’t really know David,” Lawrence said. “Because I couldn’t see my brother doing something to someone that bad.”