Erick Cano, 38, male, was found unresponsive just before 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, 2025, after Hobbs police were dispatched to a home on North Gulf Street. Investigators determined he had been shot; he died from his injuries, and the case quickly shifted from a medical call to a homicide. The death date associated with the case is recorded as May 9, 2025, aligning with memorial records that list his loss to gun violence in Hobbs.
Detectives developed a suspect within days: 41-year-old Billy Wayne Rogers. According to police, leads placed Rogers in Las Cruces, more than 200 miles west of Hobbs. Working with the Las Cruces Police Department, Hobbs officers located him and took him into custody without incident.
Authorities announced that Rogers was booked on charges including second-degree murder, felon in possession of a firearm or destructive devices, and tampering with evidence. Local memorial and crime-tracking pages tied the arrest to Cano's killing and fixed the timeline of the investigation that began with the North Gulf Street callout. Police asked anyone with additional information to contact Hobbs detectives or Lea County Crime Stoppers as the case file continued to develop.
By mid-May, the central facts were clear: Cano had been shot to death in a Hobbs residence, and a named suspect was in custody following a coordinated, interagency search. Publicly available records did not publish Cano's ethnicity, and court proceedings stemming from Rogers's arrest were still pending, but the arrest provided a focal point for the investigation into the violence that ended Cano's life.
