18-year-old arrested for actor Eddie Hassell's murder in Grand Prairie
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Detectives believe the person who shot and killed actor Eddie Hassell in North Texas was trying to rob him.
Grand Prairie police arrested 18-year-old D’jon Antone Wednesday with help from the U.S. Marshal Services’ fugitive task force.
Antone allegedly shot Hassell early Sunday morning on West Bardin Road, which is near Highway 360 on the south side of the city.
Hassell was born in Corsicana and he had been landing acting roles since he was a teenager.
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 13: Actor Eddie Hassell arrives at the screening of Open Road Films and Five Star Feature Films' "Jobs" at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live on August 13, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Fans of Hassell feel like they knew him.
But few did as well as his girlfriend, who was with him moments before the shooting.
She said there was no reason he should have been robbed and killed.
“He was so spirited and just brought joy to so many people. So many people loved him. I loved him. I can’t believe he’s gone,” Hassell’s girlfriend, Andrea Trester, said.
Trester was with Hassell moments before he was shot and killed outside her Grand Prairie apartment.
She didn’t hear the gunshot.
Police broke the news to her at her door.
“We went to get drinks and came home and we were in the house for a couple minutes. He said he was going to go outside to look in my car for his phone and then didn’t come back in,” she recalled.
Trester said she figured he was making a phone call, or maybe smoking a cigarette.
She then fell asleep.
When she woke up, her world changed.
“Everything is just really overwhelming right now. I don’t understand why this happened,” she said.
Detectives believe Antone was trying to rob him.
An affidavit states that surveillance video shows “an unknown black male believed to be in his early teens fleeing the apartment complex” in Trester’s Nissan Sentra, stealing the vehicle after the shooting.
Antone is now charged with capital murder. His bond was set at $500,000.
Police say they believe Hassell was targeted at random, and they do not know why Antone would be at that apartment complex.
He does not live there and does not live in Grand Prairie.
“He literally didn’t have anything on him but my keys, as far as I knew. His wallet was on the counter. His car keys were on my counter. I don’t understand why this happened,” Trester said.
Hassell was best known for his role in NBC’s sci-fi series “Surface,” as well as appearing in “Devious Maids” on the Lifetime Channel and in the Oscar-nominated film “The Kids Are Alright.”
Trester said this was their favorite time of year, and they had been together almost every day.
“He was just so loved. So, so loved,” she said.