A fight at a house party in East El Paso turned fatal just before midnight on Friday, February 28, 2025. Edward Daquan Smith, 23, was shot during an altercation at a large gathering in the 2100 block of Setting Sun Drive in the Sun Ridge neighborhood near Sal Berroteran Park. Officers arriving at the scene found Smith suffering from a gunshot wound; the crowd had already dispersed. Smith died at the scene.

Smith was from Chicago and was serving as a Private at Fort Bliss, where he worked as a repairer of small arms and towed artillery. He enlisted in May 2022, was assigned to the 1st Armored Division, and was married with two sons. On March 24, 2025, police arrested Specialist Eric Lammarr Mathis, 23, another Fort Bliss soldier, and charged him with murder; bond was set at $1.5 million and Mathis was booked into the El Paso County Jail. Fort Bliss confirmed it was cooperating with local law enforcement.

If anyone was at the party or saw what happened on Setting Sun Drive that night, please share information with the El Paso authorities.