Suspect Arrested in Triple Homicide from Last Summer

[Lamont_Cranston]

from the Dallas Morning News:

U.S. marshals and police converged on a Dallas gas station Thursday morning to capture a suspect in a triple homicide that rocked University Park in March.

The arrest concluded a nine-month search for Israel Barretero, who is charged with three counts of capital murder and one count of aggravated assault. Police say the 22-year-old fired an assault rifle out of a Jaguar's sunroof, killing three men and seriously wounding one near Southern Methodist University on March 15.

Killed were Eddie Pech, 36, Bernardo Andrade, 21, and his cousin Favio Andrade, 19. Osvaldo Juarez, the fourth occupant in the victims' vehicle, is still recovering from his injuries.

Police arrested the man they think was driving the Jaguar, Jimmy A. Velasquez, 20, shortly after the shootings. He remains in Dallas County jail on two charges of capital murder and one of aggravated assault. His bail was set at $1.25 million in March.

Police have said the crime was an act of revenge that backfired after a friend of Mr. Barretero's and the other suspect was injured during a fight at a Dallas bar.

After Mr. Velasquez and Mr. Barretero left their wounded friend at a hospital emergency room, police said, they drove toward the access road intersection of Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway, where the shootings occurred. There, police say, they ambushed the four men they'd fought with earlier at the bar.

The case – twice re-enacted on Fox's America's Most Wanted – was University Park's first murder investigation since September 2002.

"It is a great start to 2006," said Police Chief Gary Adams, who praised the work of Detective Travis Vavra and Sgt. Robert Flood. "We are appreciative to the Dallas Police Department and to the U.S. Marshals Service for their continued efforts to assist us with this major case."

Police arrested Mr. Barretero at a gas station near Singleton and Walton Walker boulevards in West Dallas shortly after he dropped his girlfriend off at high school about 9 a.m. Thursday.

Though University Park police say the case's airing on America's Most Wanted generated only a few tips, the number doesn't matter.

"At least two people called police to tell them that they had seen Barretero on America's Most Wanted and they knew where he was," said a statement posted Thursday on the television show's Web site. "Cops staked out the locations, and sure enough, our viewers were right on the money."

[A&Msucks]

Thank goodness they got that SOB.

[Stallion]

"dropped his girlfriend off at high school"? Nice

[that's great raplh]

education is important

[Stallion]

yeah but this could spur the Home Schooling/Public Education Debate. Poor girl-it doesn't look like see will have a date to the Junior Prom.