It hasn’t even been a full year since Wendell Lane Champion Jr. walked out of prison on parole. Back in 2010, he was convicted of first-degree murder for a robbery in Houston that cost a security guard his life. By 2025, he was back out on the streets, but on a Tuesday morning in Nash, his violent past finally caught up with everyone around him in the worst way possible.
Wendell drove down from Hope, Arkansas, to the Texarkana Aluminum plant where his wife, Candis, worked. He caught her in the parking lot before the sun was even fully up. Whatever was going on between them boiled over right there on Alumax Drive. It wasn’t just a loud argument; Wendell had brought a gun, and he clearly wasn’t planning on leaving quietly.
While Wendell was confronting his wife, a man named Eddie Ray Hill Jr. tried to step in. Eddie was just showing up for his shift and saw the trouble brewing. He tried to stop Wendell, but that just put him right in the line of fire. Wendell didn’t hesitate; he shot and killed the bystander who was only trying to help, adding another name to the list of lives he had ruined.
With Eddie out of the way, Wendell turned back to Candis. He shot her at close range, leaving her in critical condition on the pavement. The factory lot, usually a place of hard work and routine, became a crime scene in a matter of seconds. Wendell’s history of violence, which the state thought he had paid his debt for, was playing out all over again.
Before the police could even get their handcuffs out, Wendell ended the situation on his own terms. He used the weapon on himself, making sure he wouldn’t be heading back to a cell. By the time the sirens faded and the officers secured the area, the shooter was dead, leaving behind a trail of blood and questions about how a convicted murderer was able to do this again.
Candis Champion was lucky to survive. She was rushed to a Texarkana hospital and is currently listed as stable. She’s the only one left who can really speak to what happened in those final moments before the shooting started. The police are calling it a domestic dispute, but for the victims, it was a senseless explosion of violence from a man who had already proven how dangerous he could be.
Now, the town of Nash is left to pick up the pieces. There’s no more threat to the public, but the scars from that morning are going to stick around for a long time. People are left wondering about the system that let a man like Wendell out on parole, only for him to bring a nightmare to their front door.
