An unhinged Texas teen is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s mother and her two younger siblings in what police described as a targeted “cowardly act of violence.”
Jennifer Rodriguez, 39, was found dead inside her luxury Odessa, Texas, apartment alongside her 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son after the unidentified teen unleashed his massacre on Tuesday evening, according to Odessa Police.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting at the Eighty Seventh Apartments — a luxury complex 350 miles west of Dallas — to discover the gruesome scene around 5:45 p.m.
The suspected shooter, who was not identified because of his age, had a previous relationship with Rodriguez’s 15-year-old daughter and had planned to shoot her outside of school before changing his mind and going to the apartment instead, police revealed.
The teen girl was not physically wounded in the triple slaying. Police did not say if the girl was home at the time of the shootings.
“She is OK, she wasn’t injured … I’m sure after all this happened to her family, she’s not OK. But physically she was unharmed,” Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke said at a press conference Wednesday.
The 15-year-old boy ran away from the scene and was captured about 40 minutes after the shooting, police said.
“From the time that it happened, we knew almost immediately who the suspect was and then to locate him he was detained within 40 minutes,” Gerke said.
He has been charged with capital murder of multiple persons, a capital felony, and is being held at the Ector County Youth Center.
Officials haven’t released a motive for the killings.
A handgun, believed to have been used in the shooting, was recovered and officials are waiting for the investigation to conclude that it was the firearm used in the murders.
Gerke described the shooting as a “targeted” attack with no gang affiliation.
The heartbroken father of the children mourned the deaths of his children and ex-wife, saying that he didn’t “expect this kind of tragedy to happen to any of us.”
“Today, a young boy took the lives of my 9-year-old son, my 13-year-old daughter, and their mother, who was my ex-wife,” Roy Casey Martinez wrote on the GoFundMe fundraiser. “This is something that no one can really prepare themselves for because we don’t expect this kind of tragedy to happen to any of us. I am not a person who ever asks for help from anyone, but at this time, I don’t have a choice.
“My heart is extremely broken and I keep finding little pieces at a time wondering which piece goes where!! It will never be complete anymore but as long as I keep picking up these small pieces maybe one day it’ll form some type of shape again!!” Martinez said.
Gerke said his department is aware of who purchased the gun, but didn’t share how the teen obtained it.
“Evil does visit us from time to time,” Gerke said.
Texas has the death penalty but does not offer the sentence to convicted capital murderers who were younger than 18 at the time of the killings.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and friends, anyone connected with the tragedy last night. It was such a tragic and cowardly act of violence,” Gerke said.
Read the full article here
