McALLEN — Questions remain after a Mission schoolteacher was killed during a chase among armed enforcers that stretched across the city Wednesday evening, police said.
McAllen police arrested three men on murder charges after the smoke cleared later that night. A fourth suspect escaped authorities and remained at large Thursday.
The chase involved an Alton man — apparently hired to transport a pickup truck from McAllen to Hidalgo — and armed “enforcers” who shot at him during a 10-mile swing across the city.
Mission Junior High School teacher Lori Gonzalez, 48, was killed when her family’s minivan collided with the Ford F-250 pickup truck at the intersection of Business 83 and 10th Street.
“We had a person who was completely innocent — a whole family completely innocent — just shattered,” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Thursday afternoon. “They lose a mom. We lose an educator. It’s a really sad set of facts.”
Investigators continued to uncover details in the case on Thursday.
The events that preceded the fatal crash began before 6 p.m. Wednesday, when 20-year-old Eric Froilan Salinas met Jose Antonio Mendez, Marcos Isidro Villalobos and a fourth unidentified man near the intersection of South 23rd Street and Business 83, the chief said.
Salinas, 20, was hired to move a Ford F-250 to Hidalgo, police said. Mendez, Villalobos and the other man were hired to ensure the truck was delivered safely.
Salinas headed south along 23rd Street, cut past McAllen-Miller International Airport and then continued south on 10th Street, the chief said. There, he realized Mendez and Villalobos were tailgating him in another pickup truck, and the unidentified man wasn’t far behind.
Investigators believe Salinas panicked and turned around south of the airport. The three enforcers stayed on his tail, firing several gunshots at the back of his truck.
Salinas then hit the gas, police said. The vehicles sped past La Plaza Mall and into downtown McAllen, where Salinas collided with a vehicle at the intersection of 10th Street and Dallas Avenue. No injuries were reported after that crash.
Salinas and the three others pressed northward, and as Gonzalez and her family crossed 10th Street at Business 83, he smashed into the side of their minivan, police said.
“The side was off of it,” said Randy Bush, a limo driver who saw the wreckage moments after the crash. “You could see (the truck) just completely destroyed it.”
The impact killed Gonzalez and severely injured her husband and 14-year-old daughter, who remained in critical condition Thursday at McAllen Medical Center. The girl was in surgery Thursday evening and had not yet learned her mother’s fate, officials said.
The father and daughter are expected to recover.
After smashing into the Gonzalezes’ van, Salinas bailed out of the pickup truck and tried to flee, Rodriguez said. Three people who witnessed the wreck ran after the man and detained him until officers arrived.
“Citizens have our greatest admiration for doing what they did,” the chief said. “Citizens rose to the occasion and they themselves actually chased and pursued and subdued him for us as he tried to run.”
Meanwhile, Villalobos hopped from the passenger seat in the truck Mendez was driving and took back Salinas’ truck. The three enforcers then left the crash scene and sped north on 10th Street, police said.
Patrol officers spotted the convoy near the intersection of 10th Street and Dove Avenue. A pursuit led north to 17th Street and Trenton Road, where Mendez and Villalobos were arrested. The fourth man escaped. His identity remained unknown Thursday evening.
Lori Gonzalez had been a math teacher with the Mission school district for more than 23 years.
She spent 22 years teaching sixth grade mathematics at Leal Elementary before transferring to Mission Junior High School less than two years ago, said district spokesman Craig Verley.
“She was an excellent teacher,” he said.
School officials assigned extra counselors to provide support for staff and students at those schools, as well as Veterans Memorial High School, where the woman’s daughter attends classes.
Mission Junior High’s principal, Raul Sanchez, has been in touch with Gonzalez’s family, who lives in Iowa, Verley said.
Chief Rodriguez said the motive behind the rush-hour chase remains unclear. The department’s narcotic detector dog alerted officers to drug odors inside one of the trucks — but investigators were waiting to obtain search warrants Thursday afternoon before they could examine the vehicles.
Neither pickup truck seized has been reported stolen or has signs of theft.
“We know (Salinas) was asked to transport the vehicle with something inside,” the chief said. “We don’t know what that something is.”
Salinas has no arrests or convictions in Hidalgo County, according to court records. Mendez, 31, received deferred adjudication after a minor marijuana possession arrest in 2007. Police said he has an address registered in McAllen but question whether he lives there.
Villalobos, 22, has a case pending in the 370th state District Court on an aggravated robbery charge. The Mission resident has other criminal mischief charges pending and has been convicted of driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana, court records state.
Recent outbreaks of violence in Tamaulipas state and across Mexico have prompted fears that drug cartel-related violence there has spread into South Texas. But Rodriguez said police have not connected any of the three men arrested to local street gangs or transnational drug cartels.
Police will pursue one count of murder against each of the three men at an arraignment hearing set for today, Rodriguez said. Other criminal charges may also be brought against them.
Lori Gonzalez’s death is McAllen’s first homicide case this year.
“We are in the midst of trying to find out the other facts in this case,” the chief said. “We’re just not there yet.”
