Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, a Black man from Hamlet, North Carolina, was found shot inside a home on Rose Street in the Dobbins Heights community around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. Deputies with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office discovered Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, deceased at the scene from a gunshot wound, and investigators noted that the 43-year-old man did not live at the residence where he was found.
In the days that followed, word of the loss of Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, spread through Hamlet. An obituary confirmed his name, age and hometown, and set funeral services for Friday, June 13, 2025, at Greater Faith Deliverance Ministry in nearby Dobbin Heights, marking a formal farewell for the 43-year-old man whose life was cut short. Listings devoted to victims of gun violence also recorded the date and place of death for Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, in Hamlet.
Detectives first asked the public for help and said they had people of interest in the case; within roughly a day, the investigation led them to an arrest. Authorities charged Janaydia Nyshamique Tender, 26, of Hamlet, with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, on Rose Street. The sheriff's office and local reports said the 26-year-old woman was booked into the Richmond County Jail and held without bond while the case proceeds.
Investigators later said the killing of Eddie “Tank” Brooks Thomas Jr., 43, was connected to a prior domestic-violence case, a thread that underscored the private tensions that can precede deadly public moments. Officials did not announce additional suspects beyond the woman already in custody, and they continued to gather evidence as the legal process moved forward.
