Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Accused cop-killer Oscar Rosales was returned to Houston Wednesday after spending several uneventful hours in the Val Verde County Jail.
Rosales was wanted on a capital murder charge after he allegedly shot to death Harris County Pct. 5 Constable Cpl. Charles Galloway during a traffic stop on Sunday.
After the fatal shooting, Houston Police Department investigators arrested Rosales’ wife and his wife’s brother after they were found wiping down the car Rosales was in when the constable tried to stop him. The pair was charged with felony tampering with evidence, but Rosales himself was in the wind.
A $60,000 reward for information leading to Rosales’ capture was offered, and law enforcement officers began disseminating information about Rosales to agencies across the state.
On Wednesday morning, Houston PD officials announced on social media that Rosales had been captured and was in custody in Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez confirmed Rosales had been arrested and said the captured fugitive would be transferred to federal, state and county officers at the Del Rio Port of Entry and brought to the county jail to be booked and magistrated.
Rosales was driven from the port of entry to the jail in a sheriff’s office unit, accompanied by deputy U.S. marshals in the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force and Texas Department of Public Safety investigators.
Rosales was taken into the jail, booked, photographed and magistrated.
Shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, Houston PD investigators and members of the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, a task force of the U.S. Marshals Service Southern District arrived in Del Rio to retrieve Rosales.
Rosales was taken from the county jail, escorted under heavy guard to a sheriff’s office unit waiting inside the sally port and driven to Del Rio International Airport for the flight back to Harris County.
Martinez spoke to a small group of reporters from across the state in front of the sheriff’s office after Rosales left.
“Earlier today, an individual, a suspect in a capital murder case, Oscar Rosales, was arrested in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, by Mexican authorities. Federal, state and local officers, along with the U.S. Marshals Service, Southern District, were involved in capturing this individuals. He was turned over to U.S. authorities a little after noon,” Martinez said.
“He was transported to the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office, where he was processed in, he was magistrated, and the investigators from Harris County just took custody of the individual and transported him back,” the sheriff added.
In response to one reporter’s question, Martinez said Rosales did not make any trouble and gave no statements while in custody here.
Martinez also said he could not confirm whether or not Rosales is a citizen of Guatemala or El Salvador, as has been speculated, and the sheriff noted he also could not confirm whether or not Rosales was legally residing in the U.S. at the time of the constable’s murder.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
