Eric Alan Whittington, 50, was found dead outside a house on Freddy Lane in rural Newton County shortly after midnight on May 30, 2024. Deputies responding to a shooting located him on the ground; detectives say the incident began inside the cramped home and spilled into the yard during an altercation with a roommate, Joshua William Ray Taft. Investigators say the struggle involved a cast-iron skillet and a machete, and that Taft was handed a pistol and fired toward Whittington, with at least one shot through a glass panel in the front door and another through a wall and out the siding.

A child told authorities he heard bullets pass over his head, and prosecutors initially sought serious felony charges including second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful possession of a firearm, and first-degree child endangerment. Taft was arrested in Oklahoma on June 13–14, 2024. At a preliminary hearing in early September 2024, a judge dismissed the murder, armed criminal action and unlawful possession counts for lack of sufficient evidence but found probable cause on first-degree child endangerment; prosecutors said they were still evaluating whether to refile the more serious charges.

Whittington was born in Wichita, Kansas, spent part of his childhood in Texas, and later lived in southwest Missouri; he was remembered for a playful streak and a love of bikes. Does anyone have information about the night on Freddy Lane or about Whittington’s movements that evening?