EAST BATON ROUGE — It is the latest domestic murder-suicide that officials have responded to in East Baton Rouge Parish in recent weeks. The most recent has Baton Rouge Police and East Baton Rouge deputies investigating two deaths in an apparent murder-suicide that happened Wednesday morning.
BRPD Homicide detectives first responded to a shooting at an apartment early Wednesday, August 13th. Later in the morning, EBRSO deputies and the East Baton Rouge Coroner’s Office responded to a person found shot dead in a car at a local park from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to BRPD, 55-year-old Mirtalarellana Ramirez was found unresponsive with a single gunshot wound around 5:45 a.m. at 11271 Florida Blvd. That’s an apartment and UWK has learned the two were walking together when her significant other shot her. She was transported to a local hospital but died of her injuries.
It was near 9 a.m. when someone passing by reported a person inside a car in the Hamilton Avenue Park, which is a BREC Park, at Hamilton Ave. near the Central Thruway. Upon arrival, EBRSO deputies confirmed a man was found shot dead inside a car. That man has been identified as 39-year-old Hector Hernandez. Officials confirmed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
UWK has learned that Hernandez was Ramirez’s significant other and the two had been arguing for some time now.
This is the third murder-suicide in the Baton Rouge area since August 3, 2025. A couple of three years, Paul Varnado and Alanna Singleton, both 54, died inside a Central home on Sunday morning. That’s despite Singleton having an active protective order against Varnado.
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The very next day on August 4, Baker PD responded to the murder of Kyra Hayes, 24. The gunman, her boyfriend, Brendon Ely, 20, initially survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound but died the next day.
The murder-suicide today marks the third such domestic violence in the Baton Rouge metro area.
There is help for anyone trapped in a relationship. Victims can call the Iris Domestic Violence Center Crisis Line at 225-389-3001 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
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