Michael Ray Satterwhite Jr

Michael Ray Satterwhite Jr., a 29-year-old Black man from Austin, Texas, was a loving father of three known to his family as “Mike Mike.” His sister remembered him as a man who would give anyone the shirt off his back, and his grandfather, Willie Jones, described him as a non-violent person with whom he was so close that he felt more like a friend than a grandson.

On the afternoon of Thursday, April 28, 2022, that close bond was tragically broken. At approximately 12:54 p.m., the Austin Police Department received multiple 911 calls reporting shots fired in a south alley in the 400 block of East Sixth Street. When officers and EMS arrived, they found Mr. Satterwhite with obvious trauma to his body. Despite immediate life-saving measures, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:08 p.m. An autopsy conducted the next day by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed his cause of death was a gunshot wound and ruled the manner of death a homicide.

Homicide detectives processed the scene, and through witness interviews and video surveillance, they quickly identified a suspect. The evidence showed a man fleeing the area in a 2008 red convertible Ford Mustang immediately after the shooting. Investigators soon connected the crime to another fatal shooting that had occurred just 10 minutes earlier near East 12th Street and Webberville Road, where a woman was killed. Police believed the motive for both incidents was retaliation for a robbery that had taken place earlier that day.

The suspect was identified as Eric Deon Rollins, 51. At the time of the shootings, Rollins had been recently released from jail and was wearing an ankle monitor in connection with an outstanding case for sexual assault of a child. Following the investigation, the Lonestar Fugitive Task Force located and arrested Rollins in the 500 block of West 10th Street.

Eric Rollins was taken to the Travis County Jail and charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Michael Satterwhite Jr. and the female victim. He was later convicted for the murder of Mr. Satterwhite and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.