Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He's a Dangerous Kid // The Hollis Daniels Murder Story

Episode Date: July 11, 2026

19-year-old Texas Tech University student Hollis Daniels III was taken into custody by campus police following a routine student welfare check. While being processed and left temporarily un-handcuffed at the campus police headquarters, Daniels drew a stolen handgun he had hidden in his pants and fatally shot Texas Tech Police Officer Floyd East Jr.

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Was it drugs or mental health issues? Now this is Hollis, and Hollis is 19 when this story starts, and he's a college student going to Texas Tech, but Hollis has a problem. He really likes drugs. You know, the kind you smoke or the kind you swallow, just whatever he can get his hands on. The issue is that whenever he takes drugs,

like specifically Xanax, his whole personality changes. He gets really aggressive and violent towards other people, or he becomes fixated on death for some reason. But then one night in 2017, he really gets crazy. Because he's at a social gathering at his friend's house, and he's all high on Xanax, and he's been on a bender for a few days. And he realizes that his supply is about to run out,

and he's going to need some pills fast. So he decides to steal his friend's gun from his nightstand so that he can later rob his dealer and get some more Xanax. Anyway, then he leaves the place. Now, his friend is this guy, Leo. And pretty quickly, Leo realizes that his gun is missing and he knows exactly who took it and he is pissed. So Leo calls up Hollis and he's like,

you bring my gun back right now. So Hollis comes back over and when he gets there, he denies that he took anything. And this starts this big argument and this argument gets really heated. And Hollis, he starts threatening Leo, acting like if he did have the gun that he would shoot him. Then, Hollis reaches behind his back for something,

and Leo believes that this could be a gun or a knife. And Leo, he ain't about to get attacked. So then, pow, Leo punches Hollis. And Hollis, I guess he doesn't really fight back. He just gets upset and he leaves again. And so Leo and his friends, they're there, and they're all pretty worried that Hollis might return with the gun and use it on them.

So they barricade themselves inside the house and they call the police. So now police are looking for Hollis. Sometime later, the police see his car and they pull him over. And the officer asks him about this stolen gun that was reported and Hollis claims that he didn't steal it and he doesn't have it. But police don't really believe him. So they asked to search his car. And Hollis, he doesn't want that. You don't want to search your vehicle?

Yeah, but not because that all we got. I just, I just don't get sick to that. It's not necessary, no one or the only on. No, it is necessary because right now here involved in the investigation. Now, he doesn't have to let them search his car. I mean, that's his right. So the officers have no choice but to let him go. After that, he leaves and he heads back to his dorm on campus.

And so he's hanging out in his dorm room and by this point, he's kind of a mess. Like he's allegedly high on Xanax and maybe a little Zaza. and he's messing around with that gun. And suddenly, blam, it goes off, and a bullet sticks right into the wall. And Hollis is like, oh, shit! And this shot is so loud that it wakes up his roommates. And one of them confronts him about it. And Hollis is just like, oh, it was just a book falling off the table.

But he eventually admits to one of the roommates that it was his gun that accidentally went off. So later that morning, his roommates get worried. Like, this dude's crazy and he's got a gun. And they decide to go to the police station located in the student union building and report that their roommate has a pistol and that it went off. So now police start looking into this. Meanwhile, Hollis is still low on his supply of Xanax and still short on money. So he hits up a Xanax dealer that he knows.

And they go to a local park to meet up in his car and do a drug deal. So he and Hollis are in the car talking about the price of, the pills and the dealer tells him how much the drugs are going to cost. And so then Hollis pulls out that gun and he points it at his head and he demands that he hand them over and so the dealer hands over about $400 worth of pills. At the same time, police officers show up to Hollis's dorm to do a welfare check and maybe look for his gun. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that last year too. A round of Jameson ginger and lime arrives at the table.

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Texas Tech Police Department, if you don't open up, we're keying in. So they use a master key, and they get. get into the dorm and they search the place and they find a pellet gun on the table, but no real gun, because Hollis has it with him. Now, in the middle of this police search, Hollis just happens to return to his dorm room. And he like tries to give police a fake name or whatever, but they know who he is. And so they detain him and they pat him down because they're still looking for that missing gun. And Hollis has that gun tucked in his front waistband.

But here's the thing. Hollis's pants are sagging, and when the officer goes to pat him down, he pulls Hollis's pants up a little bit, and so the gun slips down into the leg of those pants. And so the officer misses it. However, they do find drugs on him, and so bam, they arrest him. So Hollis, he's there in the back of this police car, and they're heading to the station, and that gun somehow falls out of his pants. And then if you kind of watch him here, you can see him grabbing the gun and then he puts it back into his pants. Now eventually they get down to the station and the officer takes Hollis into the briefing room to do some paperwork. And Hollis, he sits directly beside that officer.

And Hollis, he no longer has the handcuffs on him because, you know, they don't think he's a threat. But he isn't ready to go to jail. Plus, he's all hopped up on that Xanax. which, remember, makes him violent. So he comes up with this terrible idea. If he shoots the cop, he can then flee the scene, and he'll get away, and they won't be able to book him for this drug arrest. Now, at this point, you can see that the gun is down at the bottom of his pant leg,

and the footage is sped up, but you can see him, like, reaching down for it, and, you know, kind of fiddling with it. And for like half an hour, they're just sitting there together. him and this cop while Hollis maneuvers the gun little by little. But he doesn't want the officer to know what he's doing, so he starts asking like small talk questions trying to distract him. You have a family home? You know, and the kids.

For you old? Yeah. Then, suddenly, he pulls that gun out of his pants and he points it at the officer and blam! He shoots him. And this, unfortunately, kills him. After that, Hollis grabs the officer's body camera, which he had just placed on the table,

because I guess he thinks that if he takes the camera, there won't be any evidence, which is just absurd. But after that, he takes off running as fast as he can. Meanwhile, an officer down the hall is in his office, and he hears the shot, and he runs to the briefing room, and he finds the other officer there lying on the floor dead. So he alerts the university, and the university activates the campus emergency system, which sends out alerts to thousands of students and faculty, telling them to barricade their doors and turn off the lights and shelter in place. But after about 90 minutes, Hollis is spotted near the northeast side of campus.

And so, bam, he's arrested for the second time that night. Here's his mugshot. KGBD Investigates team has video. evidence surrounding the murder of a Texas Tech police officer. And so at the end of it all, Hollis goes to trial and he pleads guilty and he gets sentenced to life in prison.