Few voters turn out after gun arrest at Mercedes polling site

MERCEDES — Voters seemed reluctant to head to the polls Monday in Mercedes after an incident last week in which officers arrested a man for having a gun at the location.

Jose Cavazos, 67, was arrested Friday afternoon after police received a call at 4:27 p.m. that he was displaying a weapon.

“We went right over there — obviously, we’re right here,” police Chief Olga Maldonado said of Mercedes City Hall, at 400 S. Ohio St., which is right next to the police station.

Cavazos called the accusation a political stunt. He said he was merely sitting in his truck having a beer across the street from the location when he was arrested.

Cavazos, who was campaigning for Commissioner Place 1 hopeful Leo Villarreal, said mayoral candidate Henry Hinojosa’s camp knew that as a former bail bondsman, he kept a gun in his truck.

“They told the police I was waving a gun — nobody saw the gun,” he said. “I didn’t even get out of the truck.”

Authorities found a .38-caliber handgun in the vehicle. Cavazos is charged with having a weapon in a place where one is prohibited, a third-degree felony. It is illegal to have a gun within 1,000 feet of a polling location on Election Day or during early voting.

A 16-year-old boy campaigning for Henry Hinojosa filed the report. The boy declined to give his name or be interviewed for the newspaper, at his parents’ request.

Other campaign workers for Hinojosa said the boy had seen Cavazos holding the gun up inside the car. Maldonado said she didn’t know the exact circumstances of where the weapon had been displayed.

“Obviously they reported him, so someone saw the weapon,” she said. “Everything happened so quickly, and thank God we took control of it.”

She said Cavazos had not given the police any trouble. After he was arrested he was transported to the hospital where, Cavazos said, doctors checked on his diabetes and other health problems.

After he was released, Cavazos went back to campaigning at the site, where he said Monday he had hired an attorney to fight the charges.

Hinojosa called the gun incident a “sad day” and blamed it for scaring away voters.

Turnout indeed seemed to be down after the incident. Poll workers reported 54 people had voted as of 2 p.m. Monday. Previous days had seen an average of 96 to 99 voters by that same time.

Police officers have been stationed at the doors to City Hall since the incident, but there have been no more problems.

Early voting wraps up Tuesday in Mercedes, and Election Day voting will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at City Hall.

--

Elizabeth Findell covers Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.