By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Two Cibolo men were arrested Thursday after allegedly shooting two men from Mexico outside a motel on the city’s north side, Del Rio police said Friday.
The two men who were shot, whose identities have not been released, were taken to Val Verde Regional Medical Center, then transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for further treatment.
Del Rio police were dispatched to the Del Rio Inn, 3811 Veterans Blvd., at 5:05 p.m. Thursday after receiving a 9-1-1 call in reference “to a possible shooting at that location,” DRPD Corporal Dulce Gonzalez, the Del Rio Police Department’s public information officer, told the 830 Times this morning.
“When the officers arrived, they encountered a Hispanic female that was yelling for help. Officers located two Hispanic males that had been shot multiple times with what appeared to be a semi-automatic pistol,” Gonzalez said.
The officers on-scene called for an ambulance and the Del Rio Fire Department, who arrived and rendered medical assistance prior to transporting the two men.
The two injured men are citizens of Mexico, Gonzalez said.
“As the officers worked the scene, they were able to recover the suspects’ vehicle description and a possible license plate. That information was broadcast, and a few minutes later, one of (the DRPD’s) detectives was able to locate the vehicle as it was traveling in the 700 block of East Gibbs St.,” Gonzalez said.
“With the assistance of patrol officers from our agency, criminal investigation division officers from our agency and Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies, that vehicle was intercepted and stopped at the intersection of Railway Avenue and U.S. Highway 90,” Gonzalez added.
The vehicle, a white Nissan Altima, was towed, and a weapon, described as a semi-automatic pistol, was recovered, she said.
The two men in the vehicle were brought to the police station, where they were questioned and later charged.
Arrested were Javon Rene Tristan, 19, and Kameron Jahmal Tapp, 19, both residents of Cibolo, Texas. Both men were charged with the offense of attempted murder, Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said Tristan was taken to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to one of his hands, and Tapp remains in custody here.
Gonzalez said it is believed the shooting occurred as the result of a human smuggling case.
“We looking at this as a human smuggling situation, and apparently these two individuals (Tristan and Tapp) were scheduled to pick up some undocumented persons (at the motel) and take them where they needed to go, and the two persons who were shot became scared that these two were not the ones who were supposed to pick them up, and that’s where the disagreement and conflict began,” said Lt. Hubert Smith of the DRPD’s criminal investigations division.
Smith added the shooting occurred when Tristan and Tapp allegedly tried to force the two Mexican men into their car.
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