Texas Man Charged With Gunning Down Son in Argument Over Money

A Texas man has been charged with murder after he allegedly shot his son in the chest because the son owed him money.

Killeen police were called to the scene on March 23 and found a woman holding towels to the chest of Deante Hawkins, son of 53-year-old Larry Lamont Hawkins, KWTX reported.

The woman identified her self as the younger man’s girlfriend and said that the two of them had been at the older man’s home. According to an affidavit, Deante Hawkins went downstairs when his father came home, and the woman recorded what happened from upstairs.

The affidavit says that the father and his 26-year-old son got into an argument over money the son owed to the father. In the course of the argument, the woman said she heard a gunshot, followed by a second gunshot a short time later. She told police she ran downstairs and found her boyfriend bleeding from a gunshot to the chest.

Police said they found the weapon on the scene and that Larry Hawkins told them he shot his son in self defense when he attacked him. Police said he showed no signs of having been in a physical struggle, however, and arrested him.

He was being held in the Bell County Jail on a $150,000 bond, but a hearing has been set for April 9 on a defense motion to lower the bond, the Killeen Daily Herald reported.

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[Featured image: Larry Lamont Hawkins/Bell County Sheriff’s Office]