2015-01-16
Police ID 2 dead in downtown shooting
Posted: January 17, 2015 - 11:10am | Updated: January 17, 2015 - 9:58pm
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Amanda Castro-Crist / Amarillo Globe-News
Police investigate a shooting on Friday night in the 500 block of Southeast 13th Avenue. Police confirmed two people were killed. Both victims were identified Saturday.
VIDEO | Police have identified two people killed in a shooting Friday night in downtown Amarillo.
Joe Angel Martinez Jr., 38, and Monica Barrientos, 29, were found dead in the 500 block of Southeast 13th Avenue, police said.
Police were dispatched about 11:45 p.m. after neighbors reported hearing a woman screaming and shots fired in the area.
Jonathan Edgar said he has lived for several years across the street from where the shooting occurred. Friday night, he said he and his family first heard screaming and then several shots.
When he went outside, he said he saw a man with a few small children leaving the blue house across the street and the flashing lights of police cars as officers arrived on the scene.
The man told him there had been a shooting and to get back in the house for his own safety, Edgar said. He grabbed his wife and child and went to a safe part of their house.
“It made me sick to my stomach,” Edgar said.
Another neighbor, Eric Ortiz, said he also heard the screaming and shots coming from across the street. He called police and then walked out to his front porch as officers began arriving.
“They were running down the street with rifles,” he said. “It sounded like a war zone.”
The first police officer who arrived on the scene saw a man, later identified as Martinez, who appeared to be armed with a pistol, said Lt. Erick Bohannon, coordinator of Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit.
The officer said Martinez pointed something at him and then disappeared behind vehicles in a neighbor’s driveway. The officer then heard a gunshot from the area where Martinez was last seen, police said.
Martinez was found dead with a gunshot wound to his upper body, police said. Officers then followed up on the screaming neighbors had described coming from inside the house and found Barrientos, dead from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the upper body.
Police worked until mid-morning Saturday to gather details about the shooting. No information about a motive, other people involved or if anyone else was injured was available Saturday. Calls to detectives at the Amarillo Police Department were not answered.
This is the first homicide case being investigated by the Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit this year. On Jan. 4, Christopher Jennings. 39, was killed in a shooting at 6701 Lair Road, south of Amarillo. The Randall County Sheriff’s Office is investigating that shooting.
The last double homicide in Amarillo occurred last year on June 7. Phetkeo Phetkeo, 52, and his wife, Phonsavahn Phetsavahn, 45, were killed in an apparent double homicide at their home at 1216 Jasmine St. in north Amarillo. Nga Lone Aung, 38, was taken into custody June 19 by Liberal Police Department officers during a traffic stop in Liberal, Kan. Lone was charged with the two murders and remains in Potter County jail on a $1 million bond.
Anyone with information about Friday’s shooting is asked to call Special Crimes at 806-378-9468.
Bailie Myers can be contacted at bailie.myers@amarillo.com.
Amanda Castro-Crist can be contacted at amanda.castro-crist@amarillo.com.