Garrett James Hawk, 34, a Native American man, was killed in Fort Thompson, South Dakota, on July 1, 2023, after a tense stretch of threats and intimidation that his family said had been building for days.
In the nights leading up to the shooting, relatives described a pattern that felt like a warning: car windows smashed with baseball bats, menacing messages, and phone calls that left the household on edge. They said they reached out for help, but no one came when they called.
As the fear tightened around the home, Hawk decided he would stay awake and keep watch through the night, determined that whatever had been stalking the family's peace would not catch them unprepared.
That same night, the Bureau of Indian Affairs division on Crow Creek received a report about weapons being fired in the street by a group of young men—people Hawk's family believed were the same ones who had been harassing them. In Fort Thompson, carrying a firearm did not require a permit on the reservation, but firing within city limits was not allowed; the group was contacted and warned. Not long after, less than two hours later, Hawk was shot and killed as he was leaving his home. Family members said his death felt preventable, the kind of loss that arrives after a chain of alarms that never turned into protection.
The killing sent ripples through the community. The next day, tribal leadership issued an emergency declaration focused on the violence the reservation had been facing and outlined steps aimed at restoring safety, including coordination with local authorities for jail space, reopening justice facilities, and organizing a security task force. In the time since, reporting has described Hawk's family as living with the ache of an unsolved murder—years passing without clear answers—and there have been no publicly reported arrests, named suspects, or charges announced in connection with his death in the sources available.
