Melissa Escobar was shot to death and her murderer Fabián Garza committed suicide (PHOTOS)

• Melissa Escobar was shot to death in rural Texas.
• Her murderer Fabián Garza committed suicide when the police were about to arrest him.
• His motive is uncertain.

Melissa Escobar was killed by Fabián Garza, who later shot himself to death when the police had him surrounded. The Dilley Police Department (DPD) in Texas revealed details of the tragedy that left two Hispanic families dressed in mourning.

The tragedy of Melissa Escobar, 36 was reported on Sunday, February 13, 2021 in Cold County, southwest of the San Antonio metropolitan area, a rural area of ​​cattle ranches. That day the emergency number received calls from neighbors alerting them to several shots in the city of Pearsall, Texas.

Melissa Escobar was shot to death in a mysterious crime

Pearsall, Texas is a small town of just 7,000 people on I-35, so a shootout is pretty unusual in this place surrounded by cattle ranches and nut farms. Agents of the Pearsall Police Department (PPD) responded to the report.

PPD officers arrived at the home marked 900 South Ash Street in Pearsall and found a Hispanic woman badly injured with a gunshot wound to the face. The woman identified herself as Melissa Escobar from San Antonio and she told the authorities that her attacker had been Fabián Garza.

The injured woman managed to identify her attacker

Melissa Escobar was in a very critical condition and the PPD agents asked for an ambulance to transport her to the Frío Regional Hospital so that the doctors could try to save her life. However, Melissa Escobar died in surgery.

When it was confirmed that Melissa Escobar had died from the gunshot, other organizations joined the search for Fabián Garza, her murderer. The agents of Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS) fenced off rural roads, looking for the Hispanic.

Fabián Garza barricaded himself in his house surrounded by police

Agents of the Frio County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) located Fabián Garza’s car in the town of Dilley, Texas and the man was inside what was later confirmed to be his home. The FCSO agents asked for support to arrest the killer of Melissa Escobar.

Officers responded to the call for help from their FCSO colleagues. Within minutes they surrounded Fabián Garza’s house. However, he noticed their presence. A negotiator attempted to speak to the man, who did not respond.

A frantic police chase

Fabián Garza, the murderer of Melissa Escobar, despite being surrounded by agents, got into his car and left at full speed. The man even fearlessly attacked the barricades with nails and spikes that were in the streets surrounding his house, so that he would not run away.

According to the official report of the case, the FCSO and DPS agents did not shoot Fabián Garza because they wanted to detain him so that he would pay for the murder of Melissa Escobar. Despite having flat tires he managed to escape down a rural road.

The police implored the killer to turn himself in

Agents from the DPD, FCSO, and TxDPS went out in pursuit of Fabián Garza at full speed. He was escaping in a gray SUV.

The policemen were able to block Fabián Garza’s car on Kinsell Street. A TxDPS agent was able to obtain the cell phone number of Melissa Escobar’s killer and called him to negotiate his surrender.

Fabián Garza shot himself surrounded by law enforcement officers

However, Fabián Garza escaped again despite the fact that his truck’s tires were already in shreds. The agents chased the killer of Melissa Escobar to the intersection of Highway 85 and Houston Street and in front of a meadow.

Two policemen, one from the TxDPS and the other from the DPD, approached Fabián Garza’s car unarmed to ask the man to surrender since he was surrounded already. The agents got no response. A moment later the sound of a gunshot was heard.

«Please keep both families in your prayers.»

The agents ran to assist Fabián Garza and found him badly wounded by a bullet. An ambulance rushed the man to a hospital. However, like Melissa Escobar, Fabián Garza died while the doctors were trying to save his life.

Homer Delgado, head of the DPD, issued a statement after the deaths of Melissa Escobar and Fabián Garza had been confirmed. «Please keep both families in your prayers. As a community, this senseless tragedy hurts us.»

Melissa Escobar, another victim of domestic violence?

The murder of Melissa Escobar is just one more statistic on gun violence in the United States. The nonprofit organization National Archive on Gun Violence reported that in 2022, so far 5,072 people have already been shot to death.

As of Sunday, February 13, 2022 of those people shot to death in the United States, a total of 2,168 were killed and 2,904 committed suicide. Also, 3,833 people were injured. The country has already experienced 48 mass shootings in which at least four people died in the same crime.

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