Monitor Photo/Carla Gray
Oct. 20, crime scene tape remains draped across fences at a property along Taos Drive in the Cedar Creek Shores subdivision near Payne Springs, where a 29-year-old man allegedly shot and killed three people in the early morning hours of Oct. 17, including two women and a man. The man then fled to Ennis, where he shot himself after crashing into a gas station store, authorities said.

NEAR PAYNE SPRINGS–Three people were murdered and two people were sent to a Tyler hospital in the early morning hours of Oct. 17 in the Cedar Creek Cove subdivision (formerly Cherokee Shores), the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) reported, with the suspect crashing through an entrance to a popular gas station store in Ennis about 2.5 hours later, putting two more people in the hospital, including himself after a self-inflicted gunshot wound, that Ellis County city’s police department said.
HCSO identified the suspect as Christopher Kyle Reid Jr., a 29-year-old male, in a press release posted online. HCSO said shortly after the Henderson County incident, Reid was “reportedly involved in a separate event in Ennis,” during which he sustained what HCSO said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to HCSO, it all started at about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 17, as deputies responded to a 911 emergency call at a residence located off Taos Drive in Cedar Creek Cove. Upon arrival, HCSO continued, deputies discovered multiple individuals suffering from gunshot wounds. Two victims – one adult female and one adult male – were pronounced deceased at the scene, HCSO said. A third adult female was pronounced deceased at UT Health Cedar Creek Lake hospital in Gun Barrel City after being transported there, HCSO posted.
In a later social media post, HCSO identified the victims as Kimberly Simpson, a 51-year-old female, who HCSO said sustained multiple gunshot wounds; Connie Patrick, a 72-year-old female, who HCSO reported sustained multiple gunshot wounds; and Ronny Hammonds, a 57-year-old male, who HCSO stated sustained a gunshot wound, blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds.
Two additional victims were transported to UT Health Tyler hospital, HCSO continued: Colton Reid, a 24-year-old male, who HCSO reported Oct. 17 as being in stable condition; and Henry Hopgood, a 70-year-old male, who HCSO said at the time of the post was in critical condition.
Then, at about 5 a.m. Oct. 17, a driver (separately identified by HCSO as Reid) in a maroon 2003 Dodge Caravan drove into the southwest entrance of the Buc-ee’s in Ennis, the Ennis Police Department said on social media in the late morning of Oct. 17. The driver, a white male in his 20s from Hubbard, struck and pinned a pedestrian against a sales display near the main entrance as the vehicle entered the building, Ennis police said in that post.
Once the vehicle came to a stop, the driver used a weapon to shoot himself in the head, Ennis police reported online. Oct. 18, HCSO said that the driver, Reid, was (as of that day’s post) in critical condition at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Ennis police said the pedestrian struck, who they identified as a female in her 30s from Oklahoma who was passing through Ennis, was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver (who HCSO identified as Reid) was also transported to a hospital separately with critical injuries, Ennis police reported.
Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said in an Oct. 18 press release that “(t)his remains an active and ongoing investigation. The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office is working in close coordination with the Texas Department of Public Safety Texas Rangers, the Henderson County District Attorney’s Office and Ennis Police Department to gather all relevant facts and ensure a thorough investigation.”
As of The Monitor’s deadline for this issue, no further information has been released about either incident by HCSO or the Ennis Police Department, such as an updated health status of those hospitalized, including Reid.