On December 8, 2023, Deanne M. Hector McGruder, 75, and her daughter Tina McGruder, 53, were found inside a home in the 2300 block of Basalt Drive in Killeen with fatal gunshot wounds. Officers had responded about 1:34 p.m. to a domestic disturbance, detained a man exiting the residence, and heard screams from inside. Both women were transported to local hospitals but died of their injuries.

The man detained was identified as 26-year-old Louis Lamar Simpson Jr., the grandson of Deanne and son of Tina. The arrest affidavit says Tina called 911 before the shooting to report that her son had threatened to shoot her and her mother and had assaulted them; during police questioning at the scene Tina identified Simpson Jr. as the shooter before she died. Simpson Jr. was charged with capital murder, arraigned with bond set at $3 million, and is held at the Bell County Jail. He had a prior July 30, 2021 arrest for assaulting a family member, and reportedly told interviewers he resented his mother over a past incarceration.

Tina’s friends and colleagues remembered her as a caring veteran who served about two decades in the U.S. Army and had recently started working as a counselor. Does anyone with knowledge of the family or the neighborhood have information that could help clarify what led to this killing?