Friday, August 29, 2014

Immigration-Related Double Murder in San Antonio

Two dead in morning shooting
By Alia Malik, San Antonio Express-News : August 28, 2014 : Updated: August 28, 2014 7:15pm

 

A woman grieves where San Antonio police are investigating the scene of a double shooting Thursday August 28, 2014 on the 2500 block of Suzette on San Antonio's West Side. The shooting took place about 4:00 a.m. when two men entered an apartment and shot a couple to death. The shooters fled the scene in a dark SUV. A 22-year-old woman was killed and a man in his 20s was also killed. (Photo By JOHN DAVENPORT/San Antonio Express-News)
 

SAN ANTONIO -- The last time Imelda Adalee Rincon’s father saw her, he and his girlfriend had bought her groceries.

“She gave us a kiss goodbye,” said Yvette Garza, the nine-year girlfriend of Imelda’s father, Hector Rincon.

Hours later, two masked gunmen kicked in the door of the West Side apartment where Imelda Rincon, 22, lived with her boyfriend and shot the couple to death.

“Numerous” shots were fired at about 4 a.m. at the apartment in the 2500 block of Suzette Avenue, said Lt. Michael King of the San Antonio
Police Department. One person was found dead in the bed, while another was found dead outside the bed in the bedroom, King said.

There was no evidence of a robbery, King said. Police are investigating the double-slaying as the 59th and 60th suspected murders this year.

“They intentionally came into the apartment with the intent of killing two individuals,” King said. “It doesn’t look random. It looks like something that would be consistent with a hit, but we don’t know that for sure.”

The unknown gunmen drove away in a dark SUV, according to police. A few minutes later, officers found a small SUV on fire in the 2400 block of Pinn Road, near the crime scene. King said authorities do not yet know if the blaze was related to the shooting.

Several witnesses were taken to the homicide office to give statements. According to police, family members might have known the couple was in danger. But Imelda Rincon’s father said Thursday that he did not.

“I don’t know why they killed my daughter,” he said in Spanish, before tears came to his eyes. “She wasn’t in a gang.”

Imelda Rincon does not appear to have a criminal history, according to public records. Her father described her as a hard-working young woman who worked every day at a nearby bingo hall on Marbach Road. She was a graduate of Memorial High School.

The couple said they did not know Imelda Rincon’s boyfriend well. They knew him only as “Chucho.” Authorities have not yet released his identity.

Before daybreak, a woman ran through the crime scene tape, screaming, “No,” before police got her to stand back.

She wept loudly and said, “Where’s my baby?” while another woman held her and said, “We don’t even know if it’s him yet.”

[Donde es mi bebe?!]

A neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said he thought jealousy — rather than gang violence — was the motive for the killing. He said groups of men, and officers, had mistakenly knocked on his door looking for Imelda Rincon.

The neighbor said he and Imelda Rincon were friends and that she had recently broken up with another boyfriend to be with her current one.
The neighbor described Imelda Rincon as outgoing and friendly.

“It’s just sad that it happened to her,” the neighbor said. “She was a good person.”

Last year, there were 45 slayings in San Antonio through the end of August that were classified by the Police Department as murder investigations, according to data SAPD reported to the FBI. This year’s stats are, so far, much higher but still less than 2012, when the department reported 65 murder investigations through August.

The numbers do not include slayings classified as justified homicides or manslaughters.

[Disappearing murders! Just turn them into manslaughter.]

Thursday’s incident is one of several this summer that have left police dealing with crime scenes involving multiple bodies.

In June, Zachary Manciu, 19, and Michael Moore, 20, died in a shootout following an alleged robbery gone awry.

Moore and Joseph Michael Kirschberg, 21, were trying to rob the apartment where Robert Payne, 20, lived, officials have said. Payne, who had barricaded himself in his bedroom with a shotgun, called Manciu for help, but when Manciu arrived the two suspected intruders ordered him to kick down Payne’s door, police said.

Payne opened fire on his friend, believing him to be an intruder, officials have said. In the shootout that ensued, Moore was also shot and killed. Kirschberg was later arrested and has been charged with capital murder.

Last month, Hector Davila, 44, is believed to have killed his wife and daughter — Irma Davila, 41, and Destiny Davila, 13 — before shooting and killing himself at their West Side home.

Staff Writer Drew Joseph contributed to this report.

amalik@express-news.net

Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"broke up with her boyfriend". In the Spanish community that is enough to get a female killed.

Kyra said...

Freudian Slip or typo? "Nine year-old girlfriend?"