On a late Saturday night in Fargo, North Dakota, the life of 41-year-old Eric Woodrow Hayes, a White male, came to a tragic and abrupt end. The events of July 24, 2021, unfolded near the North Dakota State University campus, in an alley situated between the Bison Turf bar and a Loaf 'N Jug convenience store. It was here that an altercation between Hayes and another man, 40-year-old Raymond Gunn, escalated to a fatal conclusion.
The two men reportedly did not know each other prior to this encounter, and the exact cause of their dispute remains unclear.
Fargo police responded to reports of shots fired at approximately 11:00 p.m.. Upon arrival, they discovered Eric Woodrow Hayes with a gunshot wound. He was quickly transported to a nearby hospital, but his injuries proved to be too severe, and he was pronounced dead. The alleged shooter, Raymond Gunn, was still at the scene when law enforcement arrived and was taken into custody. Gunn was subsequently arrested and charged with murder in connection with Hayes' death.
The legal proceedings that followed painted a more complex picture of the final moments of Eric Hayes' life. During the trial of Raymond Gunn, his defense attorneys argued that his actions were not born of malice, but of self-preservation. They contended that Gunn acted in self-defense, highlighting the fact that Hayes was armed with a knife during the confrontation. Prosecutors, however, portrayed Gunn as the aggressor who initiated the fight that led to the fatal shooting. After approximately eight months and a trial that weighed the conflicting accounts, the jury deliberated for about nine hours over two days. In March 2022, Raymond Gunn was found not guilty of the murder of Eric Hayes. Testimony during the trial revealed that both Gunn and a friend he was with remained at the scene after the shooting and were cooperative with the authorities. Further details emerged from the state's medical examiner, who reported that Hayes had a small amount of methamphetamine in his system and a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit for driving at the time of his death.
