TX- Gang-related shooting leaves man, pony dead in ‘Little Mexico'
Gang-related shooting leaves man, pony dead in ‘Little Mexico'
June 05, 2012 10:10 PM
By NAXIELY LOPEZ/The Monitor
SOUTH OF ALAMO, TX — Investigators continue to search for a suspected gang member who killed a man and a pony and left another man in critical condition Monday night.
A 25-year-old man who witnessed the gang-related shooting in the “Little Mexico” area spoke to a Monitor reporter Tuesday morning.
The witness, who declined to reveal his identity, said he was talking with his neighbor Esteban Rangel, 29, outside Rangel’s home about 9:30 p.m. Monday, when a Ford Ranger pulled into the home’s gated entrance.
The witness stayed behind while Rangel and two of his friends walked up to the driver, he said. Both parties spoke for about three minutes before a barrage of gunfire erupted from the vehicle.
“I panicked and I hid behind a car that was right next to me,” the witness said. “I just saw a lot of bullets flying by.”
He and others later counted 17 or 18 spent casings at the scene.
Hidalgo County sheriff’s investigators, however, believe some of those casings may have come from one of the victims of the shooting. Officers found two different types scattered along the 300 block of Rancho Blanco Road and there was only one person inside the truck, Cmdr. John Montemayor said. He declined to reveal the handguns’ calibers.
Rangel, a Texas Chicano Brotherhood gang member, died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds, he said. A second TCB member, whom authorities are not identifying, also suffered several other gunshot wounds, but remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition Tuesday.
A pony at Rangel’s home that took a shot to the leg died, as well.
The suspect fled the scene in his truck shortly after the shooting, but the vehicle didn’t go far. Officers found the shooter’s vehicle and a Ford Expedition abandoned less than a mile away. Investigators believe one of Rangel’s friends jumped into the Expedition and followed the shooter after the gunfire stopped.
It’s unclear what transpired, but the vehicles appeared to have crashed on Tower Road, just south of El Gato Road, Montemayor said. Deputies believe a second exchange of gunfire erupted there because they found several spent casings nearby.
Investigators have yet to identify the man behind the wheel of the Expedition, Montemayor said. Officers, however, are following leads and continue to investigate all angles of the shooting because they also found what appeared to be baggies of cocaine inside Rangel’s residence, he added.
‘DON’T GO TO SLEEP’
Little Mexico has produced its share of grim headlines in recent months. On Feb. 15, a moving shootout involving two vehicles and two rival gangs hospitalized four purported gang members. On April 25, a U.S. marshal shot and wounded a man after he allegedly kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and her 1- and 5-year-old children. And on May 2, a 14-year-old driver allegedly wounded two Donna students at a bus stop in a gang-related drive-by shooting.
Then there was Monday’s shooting, which left Rangel’s family tasked with organizing a funeral instead of a birthday party for him and his 11-month-old daughter, said Maria Maldonado, Rangel’s mother. The father and daughter would’ve celebrated their birthday Saturday.
The witness at Monday’s shooting said he tried to help Rangel as he lay bleeding facedown in a ditch outside his home.
“I didn’t see my friend, so I went looking for him, and I found him in a ditch next to the trash can,” he said.
The 25-year-old tried turning Rangel faceup, but he was too heavy, he said. Rangel’s criminal record in-dicates he weighed 300 pounds.
“‘Don’t go to sleep. I’m going to get some help,’” the witness recalled telling Rangel. “I felt helpless, like I couldn’t do anything.”
Moments later, the witness returned with Rangel’s mother, wife, brother and other neighbors.
“He was dying,” Maldonado, 53, said in Spanish amid tears Tuesday. “He couldn’t talk.”
Together they placed Rangel in the back seat of his own Jeep Commander and his younger brother drove him and the other wounded man to Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen.
“I think he died during surgery,” the witness said, a bit unsure, adding that he stayed behind with his own five children.
Rangel’s mother later clarified her son died upon arrival at the hospital.
“They were all lies,” she said about the alleged surgical procedure. “They didn’t want to tell me he died because I’m sick.”
Maldonado said Rangel moved into her home with his family several months ago to help her cope with the death of her husband, who died about a year ago.
“He was temperamental,” she said of her son. She refused to say anything about his alleged involve-ment with gangs. “(My sons) had problems with those people.”
Investigators believe “those people” Maldonado referred to — shooter included — might be members of a rival gang, but they wouldn’t say which for fear of jeopardizing their investigation.
“We want to make sure we catch this guy first,” Montemayor said.
Gang-related shooting leaves man, pony dead in ‘Little Mexico’ | leaves, south, little - Brownsville Herald
