Dallas police trying to find out if Oak Cliff restaurant shooting suspect is Mexican hit man

06:55 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com

Police are investigating whether a man arrested in an ambush killing in a west Oak Cliff parking lot Monday morning came to Dallas from Mexico to commit the crime.

Jose Rangel Arrez, 34, was being held Tuesday night at the Dallas County Jail on a murder charge in the killing of 37-year-old Antonio Aviles-Sanchez. Police say Arrez is a Mexican citizen and had been in the state for just a few days.

"He's in Texas less than a week and involved in an ambush-type shooting," said homicide Sgt. Bruce McDonald. "For him to come in this short period of time and be involved in this type of a shooting, it just looks like he may have been brought in for that reason."

Police say they still have not determined a motive in the killing, though they believe the victim had drug ties. It is unclear whether Aviles-Sanchez was the primary target in the shooting, in which three others, including Arrez, were also injured.

Police believe multiple suspects attacked a Hummer at the front of a caravan of several vehicles pulling into the parking lot of the Morelia Mexican restaurant at North Plymouth Road and West Jefferson Boulevard about 2:50 a.m. Monday. At least 35 shots were fired at the Hummer and from people inside the vehicle returning fire, police said.

Aviles-Sanchez, of Dallas, was inside the Hummer and died at the scene, police said. A son of restaurant owner Santos Lozano was also in the Hummer and was wounded in the shooting, police said. Lozano has not returned messages left at the restaurant.

A third man who got out of another car in the caravan was also injured, police said.

dallasnews.com