Larry Deshaun Baker

Larry Deshaun Baker, a 43-year-old Black man from Madisonville, Texas, died after being shot on November 13, 2022. At approximately 5:45 a.m., officers from the Royse City Police Department responded to a call about a disturbance at a home in the 5400 block of County Road 2526 in Hunt County. When they arrived, they found Mr. Baker lying in the driveway with multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation quickly identified the resident of the home, 43-year-old Eric Lamont O’Bryant, as the shooter. Police learned that O'Bryant had fled on foot into a heavily wooded area before they arrived. With assistance from the Hunt and Rockwall County Sheriff’s Offices, authorities searched the area but could not locate him. The next morning, a local resident reported seeing a man matching O’Bryant’s description coming out of the woods carrying a rifle. Officers responded and took O'Bryant into custody without incident, initially arresting him on a warrant for possession of a controlled substance.

As detectives pieced together the events, they determined that a woman named Brooke Rice had been staying the weekend at O'Bryant's home. In the early morning hours of November 13, she called Mr. Baker and another man, Elem Wynne III, asking them to come pick her up from the residence. According to the police investigation, when Mr. Baker and Wynne arrived, they were armed with a shotgun and a baseball bat and forced their way into the house. O'Bryant, who was armed with a handgun, fired at the men as they entered the doorway. Mr. Baker was struck multiple times and collapsed in the driveway.

Following the shooting, Wynne and Rice fled the scene in a vehicle. A witness called 911 with a description of their car, and investigators later learned that the pair had thrown a shotgun out of the vehicle into a grassy area as they drove away. Both Rice and Wynne, who were from the Huntsville area, were arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence.

Based on eyewitness accounts and physical evidence from the scene, police made the decision not to arrest O'Bryant for murder and planned to refer the case to a Hunt County Grand Jury. However, on November 19, 2022, just six days after the shooting, emergency services received a call that O'Bryant was unresponsive at his residence. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead. In April 2023, Elem Wynne III pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence and was sentenced to seven years of deferred adjudication probation. Brooke Rice failed to appear for her arraignment and was later taken into custody.