Officer finds 19-year-old shot dead and sees man fleeing with shotgun, Texas cops say
Police are searching for a man after his ex-girlfriend was found shot dead outside her home, Texas officials said.
Officers responded to an apartment complex in Pasadena around midnight on June 26 after a 911 caller said they heard gunshots in the area, Raul Granados, a spokesperson for the Pasadena Police Department, told McClatchy News.
“Our first officer arrived on scene and observed a male running away from the scene still holding a shotgun,” Granados said.
The officer then noticed a woman who had been shot and tended to her.
By the time other officers arrived, the suspect had fled the area, Granados said.
The victim, later identified by family members as 19-year-old Lesley Reyes, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to KTRK.
Police are now searching for her 20-year-old ex-boyfriend, who is considered a person of interest, Granados said. McClatchy News is not naming the man as he has not yet been charged.
The man “had been seen in the (victim’s) apartment complex earlier that afternoon,” Granados said. “He had been kind of reaching out to her and she had been trying to stay away from him.”
He showed up at the victim’s apartment and confronted her in the parking lot after she returned from work, according to Granados, who said family members of the victim and other witnesses placed him at the scene.
The pair had a conversation in the parking lot, but it’s not clear what led up to the shooting, Granados said.
After the victim was shot, her mother called her cell phone and the man answered, according to KTRK. He cried and repeatedly apologized before running away from the scene, officials said.
Detectives are expected to obtain an arrest warrant for the man by the end of June 27, Granados said.
Pasadena is about 15 miles southeast of Houston.
This story was originally published June 27, 2023 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Officer finds 19-year-old shot dead and sees man fleeing with shotgun, Texas cops say."