Billy Hinkle, 44, a Black/African American male, was shot and killed on May 26, 2025, in Vallejo, California. Around 5:30 p.m., officers responded to reports of gunfire near Sacramento Street and Daniels Avenue at a long-standing homeless encampment known locally as “the Island.” They found three men with gunshot wounds; Billy Hinkle, 44, and Craig Cousins, 59, were pronounced dead at the scene, while a third man was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.
The Solano County Coroner later identified the two men who died as Craig Cousins and Billy Hinkle.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators identified 45-year-old Eddie Charles Sample of Vallejo as the prime suspect. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant on May 30 and asked the U.S. Marshals Service to help locate him due to public safety concerns. On June 4, a Marshals team arrested Sample without incident on the unit block of Cravath Street on Treasure Island in San Francisco. He was booked into Solano County Jail on suspicion of murder.
Accounts from residents portray the shooting as a violent rupture in a fragile community where both Billy Hinkle, 44, and Cousins had tried to keep the peace. Friends and family described them as “peacekeepers” who intervened to calm conflicts and looked out for others living at the encampment—a place bordered by wetlands and connected by a narrow footbridge where fear lingered after the gunfire. Memorials rose in the days that followed as the neighborhood grieved.
Authorities say Sample remains in custody; records and police statements indicated he was held without bail following his arrest. Reporting also noted that, in addition to the murder booking, he faced allegations related to a parole violation and evading police. The investigation into the full motive and circumstances of the shooting that killed Billy Hinkle, 44, continues.
