On February 13, 2023, at about 5:12 p.m., Harker Heights police responded to a 911 report of a shooting at a residence in the 1800 block of Pontotoc Trace. Officers found 23-year-old William Jerome Baker III, known as Jay, deceased from a gunshot wound; Justice of the Peace Nicola James pronounced him dead at 5:44 p.m. An autopsy was ordered at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.

Baker was a Harker Heights resident, born June 15, 1999, in Crestview, Florida. He graduated from Shoemaker High School in 2018, had planned to pursue a career in the medical field, and adopted a dog named Rocky in 2019. The community held a memorial service on February 25, 2023, at Chisolm’s Family Funeral Home in Killeen; a private family interment was scheduled for a later date.

If anyone knew William or has information about the shooting on Pontotoc Trace, please come forward to assist the investigation.