Tamez said a 22-year-old man was arrested today for the murder of 14-year-old Shawn Sanchez on Tuesday afternoon. This is the 3rd arrest in the case this week.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Robstown police have made a third arrest in the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy outside the Figueroa Square Apartments, Chief Mike Tamez confirmed.
Tamez said members of the department’s Criminal Investigations Division and Organized Crime Unit, along with deputies from the Nueces County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office, arrested 22-year-old Dominic Guzman around 4 p.m. Friday. Guzman is the latest suspect taken into custody in the expanding case.
Tamez says Tuesday’s killing of a 14-year-old boy was a retaliatory shooting tied to a violent confrontation that happened just three days earlier, and he warns the cycle will continue unless parents intervene.
In an interview with 3NEWS, he explained that the violence began Saturday night, when a 16-year-old and 17-year-old exchanged gunfire during a dispute “possibly over money and guns owed to an individual.” The 16-year-old was shot multiple times.
“He was touch and go,” Tamez said, crediting a Precinct 5 deputy with “100 percent saving this young man’s life.”
On Tuesday, 14-year-old Shawn Sanchez, described by Tamez as a former friend of one of the teens involved in Saturday’s shooting, was killed outside the Figueroa Square Apartments. Tamez said investigators are now confident the killing “appears 100 percent” to be retaliation for the earlier shooting.
How investigators made rapid arrests
Tamez said detectives immediately began collecting digital evidence from ring cameras and cell phone data and canvassed several neighborhoods. Witnesses provided a strong vehicle description, and a Robstown ISD police officer spotted a matching vehicle while assisting PD.
“Once we had that vehicle, we seized it,” Tamez said. A search warrant recovered additional evidence inside.
Tamez said Robstown PD detectives worked 36 hours straight to break the case.
“They’re doing an incredible job, ultra and hyper focused, to get justice for this family,” he said. “It has been incredible to see these guys pull in with the manpower.”
Tamez said investigators believe more people were involved, and additional arrests are expected.
He credited a broad multi-agency response, saying Robstown PD was joined by the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office, Precincts 3 and 5 constables, Robstown ISD police, the U.S. Marshals Service and Corpus Christi police.
Weapons recovered may be tied to other crimes
Tamez confirmed police have seized several weapons, though he could not release an exact number. Some may be linked to other criminal cases, he said.
“Whether they buy them from another individual in the street or they steal them, they get ahold of them,” Tamez said, adding that investigators believe some of the guns were stolen in burglaries or robberies.
Tamez: Parents must step in
Tamez emphasized that law enforcement cannot address the root of the violence alone.
“Parents have an opportunity to prevent these things,” he said. “I refuse to believe the PD should be raising these kids.”
He added that investigators routinely see troubling content on social media accounts belonging to local teens.
“The social medias, the Instagrams we see for some of these kids is horrible,” Tamez said. “Parents need to be involved.”
The investigation remains active, and police expect to release additional information as arrests continue.