He was an ex-Army Airborne Ranger and former Baton Rouge policeman who retired from law enforcement to start his own construction company.
Family members remember Ryan Gibbs Hord as a force in the Capital Heights community. A devoted gardener, he built a planter at Bernard Terrace Elementary School near his house and filled it with flowers. He imbued the neighborhood with pocket-filled flowers planted in small garden beds.
But when Hord, 41, interrupted a vehicle break-in near his Richland Avenue house in April 2020, his life was cut short after he confronted the would-be robber, according to authorities.
Prosecutors detailed the exchange of gunfire Hord had with Craig Leyland Willis yards from his doorstep as testimony began Monday afternoon in Willis’ murder trial. Hord was killed when a bullet struck him in the chest during the shootout, according to authorities. Willis survived multiple gunshot wounds, but was indicted on a charge of murder.
In Willis’ bench trial inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse, the 33-year-old Baton Rouge man is being tried for second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and simple burglary in connection with Hord’s killing.
District Judge Gail Horne Ray is presiding and will determine if Willis is guilty of the crime. The East Baton Rouge Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Willis, waived a jury trial and asked the judge to decide his fate in a July 11 motion.
Hord was a Baton Rouge police officer who started working with the department in 2009 and spent several years on the force, according to BRPD officials. He was also a reserve deputy for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office from 2004 to 2008, an EBRSO spokesperson confirmed Monday.
As the trial opened, the defendant’s legal team argued that Hord hunted down Willis after he departed the former policeman’s house, leaving Willis with no choice but to shoot him in self-defense.
“Evidence will show you that Mr. Hord took matters into his own hands and went after Craig Willis,” Assistant Public Defender Ebonni Jackson said in her opening statement. “A commotion took place and shots rang out.”
Hord had been recently engaged, and his fiancé, Natalie Butler, moved in with him and his son, who was 15 at the time. They lived in a Baton Rouge home just north of Government Street in the Capital Heights section of Mid City.
Prosecutors indicated they intend to show the judge surveillance footage from security cameras Hord had recently installed on the property.
According to an arrest warrant, the chain of events that led to the fatal shooting began shortly before midnight. Willis was spotted on the cameras tugging on the handle of the pickup truck parked in Hord’s driveway in the 100 block of Richland Avenue. When he couldn’t get into the locked truck, Willis continued walking south, tugging on other vehicle door handles along the way. He managed to break into a neighbor’s Ford Focus three houses down, which is where Hord confronted him.
Prosecutors said Hord jumped into his pickup and tracked Willis to the neighbor’s property, where he confronted the would-be robber. Assistant District Attorney Jamie Triggs told Judge Ray that Hord jumped out of his truck and ordered Willis to get on the ground. But the two men opened fire, and Hord died at the scene with a .357 revolver lying next to his body.
“For four seconds, the sound of gunshots boomed through that April night,” Triggs said. “Both men were armed, both men pulled their weapons, both men shot, and both men were hit. One of them legally possessed his firearm, the other one did not. One man died at the scene, his life taken away from his family, his fiancé and his friends forever. The other man is sitting at the defense table.”
Willis was shot multiple times and fled the scene. Prosecutors said he walked around the neighborhood for nearly an hour trying to piece together his story before police captured him one block east along Edison Street. Reports indicate Willis had an empty 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol on him, and investigators linked the weapon to shell casings recovered from the scene of the shooting.
Willis was already a felon prohibited at the time from owning or possessing a firearm. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery in December 2009 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, court records show.
Willis’ attorneys argued that he walked away from Hord’s house and was about 100 yards from the victim’s doorstep when Hord armed himself with a gun and a head lamp and chased down Willis. Jackson, the public defender, said Willis reasonably believed he was in imminent danger when Hord confronted him and “had to save himself."
“Afraid and scared, being approached by a man with a gun and light, he feared for his life,” she told the judge. “Mr. Hord approached Craig Willis when Craig Willis had already walked away.”
Court records show Willis pleaded guilty to theft of a firearm in December 2021, a charge that stemmed from an auto theft less than two weeks before the shooting. Willis broke into a vehicle in the 800 block of Summer Drive and stole a Smith & Wesson handgun. It was not immediately clear if that is the same gun he used in the shootout with Hord.