A person was shot and killed early Sunday morning in the 3400 block of McCleland Creek Trail in Temple, and police say a 25-year-old man is now in custody in connection with the death. Officers were dispatched to the scene at 12:40 a.m. and found one victim with a gunshot wound who did not survive.
Officers Respond to Shooting Call Before Dawn
According to a City of Temple police statement, officers were sent to the scene after a shooting was reported in the early morning hours. Police said one individual was pronounced deceased at the scene and that no other injuries had been reported at the time of their statement.
As reported by KWTX, officers who responded found one victim with a gunshot wound who died at the scene. Per the same report, the shooting occurred early Sunday morning on McCleland Creek Trail, and as FOX 7 Austin noted, authorities withheld the victim's name pending notification of next of kin.
Suspect Identified, Investigation Points to Domestic Dispute
Temple police identified the suspect as 25-year-old Christan Fredericks and said he had been taken into custody, per the city's statement. The station's report on the case indicated that a preliminary investigation suggested the incident was a domestic disturbance, though police said they were continuing to investigate and had not released further details about the circumstances of the shooting.
Temple police asked anyone with information to contact the department at 254-298-5500 or Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477.
Part of a Troubling Statewide Pattern
The case adds to a grim statewide tally. According to KXAN, 160 people were killed by an intimate partner in Texas in 2025, with women accounting for 85 percent of those deaths, or 136 victims. Among the women killed in those cases, KXAN reported that 73.4 percent were fatally shot and 79.4 percent were killed by a current partner.
Those figures come from the Texas Council on Family Violence, whose annual Honoring Texas Victims report presents a fatality review of people killed by intimate partners statewide. It is not established whether Sunday's victim in Temple had an intimate-partner relationship with Fredericks, and police have described the incident only as a suspected domestic disturbance.
