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Honduran charged in N. Side fatal shooting

Web Posted: 02/24/2006 12:00 AM CST
Brian Chasnoff and Vianna Davila
Express-News Staff Writers

Police arrested a 27-year-old man Thursday in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred outside a North Side apartment complex, police said.

Vladimir Peña, of Honduras, was charged with murder and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license. His bond was set at $100,000.

Victor Orgaz Amador, a resident at the complex in the 3500 block of Grant Avenue and a dishwasher at a local restaurant, suffered two bullet wounds to the chest and was taken to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:48 a.m. Thursday, a police report said.

Like Peña, Amador was Honduran, according to roommate and fellow countryman Jose Rivera. He saw Amador around 1 a.m. Thursday, about an hour before his roommate was shot.

Another resident at the complex told police he saw three men arguing loudly with two other men inside a dark car in the parking lot of the Grant Place Apartments around 2:11 a.m. Everyone spoke in Spanish, and someone mentioned a gun, the witness told police, according to the report.

Amador approached the window of the car. Four gunshots rang out, causing Amador to crumple to the ground, the report said. The car fled north on Grant Avenue.

Peña later was identified as the shooter and arrested, the report said.

The men had been arguing over a woman, said San Antonio Police Department spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino.

Rivera, who met Amador when they were young boys in Honduras, said his roommate was a peaceful person who avoided trouble and the things that go with it, such as drugs.

He focused only on his work as a dishwasher so he could send money home to his mother in Honduras, Rivera said.



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