City police offer reward in multiple murder
Posted on 01/08/2003 2:13:13 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
City police offer reward in multiple murder
01/08/2003
EDINBURG, Texas - Lacking leads in the slayings of six men who died in a spray of gunfire during a home invasion, police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to conviction.
Edinburg Police Chief Quirino Munoz said he expected investigators to finish gathering clues Wednesday at the two ramshackle houses sharing a semirural lot of this Texas-Mexico border city.
The mother of two victims was left bound but alive in the larger house, where one of her sons was killed. The other five victims were in the smaller house.
From her description, police believe there were three to five assailants. At least one wore a ski mask and a jacket with "police" on it, leading investigators to call it a "pseudo cop" incident.
The invaders said they wanted drugs, money, or weapons, she said. Munoz has said possible motives include drugs, revenge or a premeditated hit.
The crime has similarities to a September attack in nearby Donna, in which six Mexican women were gunned down in a car. Two women survived.
Munoz described the stream of bullets in both attacks as "overkill" and said police from the cities have compared notes.
"We're working with agencies at all levels ... municipal, county, even federal," Munoz said. "We're availing ourselves to whatever expertise they might have in this area."
The victims were identified as brothers Jerry Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30; Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20, who are also brothers; Ruben Rolando Castillo, 32; and Jimmy Armendariz, 22.
Rachel Hartman, a 20-year-old student who had been living with Armandariz, said she suspected the attack had something to do with drugs.
"I think it had to have been something out of revenge and getting rid of competition," she said.
Armendariz rarely went to the house, Hartman said.
"If he just wouldn't have been there ..." she said in a telephone interview before bursting into tears. "It's not fair, he was too young."
Edinburg is about 220 miles south of San Antonio.
| Victims ID'd in Valley home invasion killings (fake cops murder case, 6 killed in Edinburg, Texas) |
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