Larry Carr Jr., 42, a Black man from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was pulled into a violent chain reaction that began as a dispute and ended in gunfire outside an apartment building on the 100 block of North Cliff Avenue. On the night of June 8, 2019, police said an altercation erupted outside the complex, and shots tore into a small crowd—three people were hit, including Carr.
He was wounded in the torso and fought for his life for two days before dying on June 10, 2019.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators described the scene as chaotic and fast-moving: the shooter fled, leaving behind wounded victims and frightened witnesses. Authorities identified a suspect—Ramon Deron Smith—and said he was on the run while detectives tried to piece together who had been there, how the confrontation escalated, and why a gun had been drawn at all. As the search widened beyond South Dakota, law enforcement also sought two women connected to the case, not as accused shooters but as material witnesses whose testimony was believed to matter to the investigation.
Days later, the case stretched across state lines. The two material witnesses—Christina Haney and Martece Saddler—were arrested in eastern Idaho on warrants issued in South Dakota, and shortly afterward Smith was captured in Minneapolis. Reports at the time said Smith was taken into custody on serious charges tied to Carr's death and the injuries to the two other shooting victims. With the suspect in custody, prosecutors moved the case from a manhunt into a courtroom fight over intent, fear, and responsibility.
At trial, the story of what led to the shooting was framed as a feud that had simmered and then burst into the open, with court records later describing a dispute that played out through social media and spillover confrontations. Smith's defense argued self-defense, but the jury rejected that account. In late August 2021, jurors found Smith guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, and six counts of aggravated assault—verdicts that reflected not only Carr's death, but the danger and injuries inflicted on others in the same volley of gunfire.
In January 2022, sentencing brought the case to a grim conclusion: Smith received a life sentence in connection with Carr's killing, along with additional prison time for the assault convictions, including a consecutive term reported as 25 years on aggravated assault. The legal fight did not end there—Smith pursued appeals that continued to spotlight his claim of self-defense, keeping the case alive in the courts even after the prison doors closed behind him.
