Police say 44-year-old Wilfredo Lopez shot three people, including his son and girlfriend, on August 10.
SAN ANTONIO — Charges have been upgraded to capital murder for a man accused of shooting three people, including his girlfriend, at a west-San Antonio apartment on Aug. 10.
Just before midnight, police say 44-year-old Wilfredo Lopez shot his girlfriend, eldest son and one his children’s mother in the head. He then fled the scene with three children, leaving one in the apartment.
EMS transported the three victims to the hospital, where his son, 22-year-old Jose Darwin Rivera Vasquez, was pronounced deceased.
On Saturday, six days later, 28-year-old Anabelly Licett Vasquez was also pronounced deceased, prompting an upgrade to Lopez’s charges from murder to capital murder. He also faces an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge.
There’s no word on the third victim’s condition, who is a 21-year-old woman, but at last check she was in critical condition.
It’s unclear which woman was Lopez’s current girlfriend.
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Lopez is a Honduran man who is in the country by illegal means.
“Rivera-Mejia has been removed from the U.S. three times previously,” ICE said, adding he was previously arrested in San Antonio in 2009 for alleged assault and again in 2012 for alleged DWI. Authorities say he was brought back to Honduras within weeks both times before Border Patrol found him “close to Eagle Pass” in the July 2015, where he admitted to again entering illegally days prior.
He was last taken back to Honduras on Aug. 10, 2015, according to ICE; it’s unknown when he returned.
San Antonio police say the man shot his girlfriend, the mother of his children and his eldest son Sunday night before he fled; authorities were still investigating the motive. Given his history of illegal entry into the U.S., ICE said it was requesting the detainer that would keep him in custody for an additional 48 hours before release so that federal authorities have time “to assume custody, in accordance with federal immigration law.”
Immigration detainers are typically sought when an individual in the country illegally represents a public safety or national security threat, according to ICE.
“Criminal aliens present in the U.S. pose a significant threat to our public safety and our citizens,” Miguel Vergara, director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE San Antonio, said in a release. “We will continue to do everything in our power to prevent tragedies like this from occurring and working with our local law enforcement partners so criminals are not released back into our communities.”