Man fleeing SWAT teams caught at convenience store
Jeremy Roebuck
March 1, 2007 - 2:28AM


ABRAM — It took two SWAT teams, helicopter support and a cadre of sheriff’s deputies, but Robert Garza Perez couldn’t run from authorities any longer.

At about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Hidalgo County deputies on routine patrol of this rural border community say they saw Garza beating a woman on the side of the road.

When they stopped to help, he allegedly pulled out a gun, shot into the air and led authorities on a foot chase through miles of brush, along levees and eventually to a small convenience store, where he was finally subdued just before 1 p.m.

Throughout the pursuit, Garza shot at least three times at deputies, but Sheriff Lupe Treviño credits his force with saving the man’s life.

“Legally, we could have taken lethal action at least three different times,” he said. “But I think we saved two lives today: his and that of the woman he was attacking.”

Deputies first stopped Garza, 31, about 11:30 a.m. near the intersection of Abram Road and Old Military Highway after witnessing his violent encounter with a woman believed to be his common-law wife, Treviño said. As authorities approached, Garza allegedly brandished a small-caliber revolver, pointing it first at the woman and then at deputies.

He fired one shot into the air, Treviño said, before running off into a patch of nearby brush.
“It took a lot for the deputy not to return fire and keep trying to talk him out of it,” Treviño said.

As Garza ran toward nearby homes, two SWAT teams and U.S. Border Patrol agents quickly established a perimeter around the rural area. Meanwhile, investigators were dispatched to the nearby home of Garza’s grandmother.

When they approached the home, Garza bolted from the house, firing at them. As authorities followed him over fences and down a nearby levee, Treviño began to worry that their suspect could pose another threat.

“My concern was that every time he got close to another house he might enter it,” he said. “Then we would have a hostage situation on our hands.”

At one point in the chase, deputies cornered Garza in an open field, where he shot at them once more and threatened to shoot himself. Deputies fired at him three times with a bean-bag gun, hitting their mark each time, but none of the shots seemed to faze him, Treviño said.
“He challenged them to take a real shot,” he said.

Garza finally ran to Villarreal’s Country Mart, a small convenience store located near the intersection where the pursuit began. As store employees saw him coming, they locked the doors and hid inside.

With their suspect trapped outside the store, deputies tried to convince Garza to give himself up. Meanwhile, SWAT team members prepared to take swift action. About 12:45 p.m., they pinned him against the door and removed his weapon.

“We were prepared to stand there and talk to him all day long, until he started heading to that convenience store,” Treviño said.

But even then Garza would not come willingly. He spit, struggled and cursed as deputies shuffled him toward waiting patrol cars in front of a crowd of rattled customers and members of his family, who had followed the pursuit to the store.

Among those gathered were several faces familiar to deputies, Treviño said.

“The Garzas are very well known for their antics,” he said, explaining his officers had responded to their homes several times before.

Members of Garza’s family refused to comment before leaving the scene.

Garza likely will face at least one count of assault and two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, Treviño said. He is expected to be arraigned today.


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