Shawn Thomas Eaton

Shawn Thomas Eaton was a 29-year-old White man from Austin, Texas, and a father to two boys. Remembered as a talented musician who was both a “Guitar shredder” and a “Bass head,” he was also known as someone who could fix anything.

On the afternoon of February 21, 2020, Eaton was at a homeless encampment in a wooded area off South MoPac Expressway in Southwest Austin. Witnesses who lived at the camp said they heard Eaton in a heated argument with another resident, 41-year-old Damon Richard Boyd. Boyd, who went by the name Richard, was heard yelling and swearing at Eaton to get out of his tent. When Eaton refused, witnesses heard a single gunshot.

Boyd’s girlfriend told police she ran toward the sound and saw Eaton fall to the ground. She saw Boyd standing next to him and a hole in Eaton’s upper left chest. Boyd later told his girlfriend he shot Eaton to protect her, claiming he had once found Eaton in their tent at night. Eaton’s body was left at the campsite, and someone placed a mattress over him.

Two days later, on the morning of February 23, a man from the camp flagged down a Sunset Valley police officer to report that a person had been shot and was still at the site. Austin police officers responded and found Shawn Thomas Eaton deceased from what appeared to be a single gunshot wound to the chest. Homicide detectives found a .32 caliber shell casing on the ground near the body, and Boyd’s girlfriend confirmed he owned a handgun of that caliber.

Witnesses identified Damon Richard Boyd as the man who had argued with and shot Eaton. A murder warrant was issued, and Boyd was arrested by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force without incident. He was charged with first-degree murder and booked into the Travis County Jail, where he was held on a $500,000 bond.

In May 2022, Damon Richard Boyd was tried and convicted of murder for the death of Shawn Thomas Eaton.