Dallas Gunman Kills 3 From Car Sunroof

[Henry Bowman]

Link to source.

Dallas Gunman Kills 3 From Car Sunroof


Mar 15, 11:34 AM (ET)

By LISA FALKENBERG

DALLAS (AP) - A gunman armed with an assault rifle stood through the sunroof of a Jaguar and opened fire on another moving vehicle early Tuesday, killing three men and critically wounding a fourth, police said.

Authorities were searching for the suspect, who was a passenger in a car described as a white or silver Jaguar with fancy wheels, said Cpl. Max Geron, a Dallas police spokesman. The gunman had at least one accomplice - the driver, Geron said.

The shootings happened about 2 a.m. on a highway frontage road near the Southern Methodist University campus.

A police officer waiting at a traffic light at the intersection witnessed the shootings and stopped to help when the second car crashed, police Sgt. Gil Cerda said. Police policy prohibited the officer from pursuing the fleeing vehicle because he already had a prisoner from an unrelated case in his back seat, Geron said.

No motive has been determined, but the shooting happened soon after a fight was reported at a nearby bar. A car reported at the bar resembled the one from which the shots were fired, and police were investigating for a possible link, Geron said.

Killed were Eddie Pech, 36; Bernardo Andrade, 21; and Favio Andrade, 19, all of Dallas, Geron said. Another man was taken to Baylor University Medical Center, where he was listed in "very critical" condition, the spokesman said. His identity was not released.

 

[io333]

There sure is a lot of this going on lately.

 

[TarpleyG]

Jaguar with fancy wheels

aka "Homie Chromies."

Yes io, you are right. seems like there is a lot more of this going on. I suspect it is the media picking up on "assault weapon" stuff since the ban ended. You look back and notice that's when it started to be reported.

Greg

 

[Henry Bowman]

Shame on you -- blaming the media. None of this happened until the streets were flooded with assault weapons after Bush (who is in the pocket of the NRA) let the AWB expire.

 

[petrel800]

I can't wait for the next flooding of assault weapons in the street. I must have missed out last time because when I woke up there were no AKs or ARs in the street in front of my house.

 

[LiquidTension]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150494,00.html

Any other sources? All of the stuff I've seen on this so far has been lacking in the information department.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Seems a shame that it was eyewitnessed by a cop and the best description is "white or silver Jag with fancy wheels." I understand that he could not pursue, but...

 

[yorick]

With that limited desc on the car - how do they "know" it was an 'assault rifle'?

Seems to me media outlets have only two descriptives when it comes to rifles used in a crime - a: assault rifle b: high powered assault rifle

sheeesh....

 

[Control Group]

Now, now, let's be fair.

There are "assault rifles" and "military-type rifles" and "high powered sniper rifles" and "machine guns" and "unregistered handguns."

And remember, the plural of "gun" is "arsenal."

 

[xdoctor]

True, the media does try and scare people by telling them all about how the ebr's are going to come and get them. However, when there are three men in a moving car shot by a gunman in another moving car, I'm betting it took more than a few shots. This one sounds to me like a legitamate assault rifle shooting, god knows I couldn't shoot and kill three men while standing in a Jaguar. Those things are tiny!

 

[shermacman]

Hey, I saw John Travolta fire off hundreds of rounds and kill dozens of people shooting assault weapons out of the sun roof of a car.

Don't tell me it can't be done!

Those assault weapons have minds of their own...If this happened through the sun roof of an SUV the death toll would have been in the thousands!

 

[Standing Wolf]

...remember, the plural of "gun" is "arsenal."

I wish I'd said that!

 

[tyme]

It's the cover story at dallasnews.com, but that's a registration-only site, so here it is...

3 dead in shooting near SMU Dallas, UP police investigating incident
03:39 PM CST on Tuesday, March 15, 2005
By APRIL KINSER / DallasNews.com

A longtime cook at a Dallas Italian restaurant and two other men were killed Tuesday when their vehicle came under fire near the Southern Methodist University campus.

A Dallas police officer who witnessed the gunfire around 2 a.m. said he saw a man with an assault rifle appear through the sunroof of a car and take aim at another car along the southbound service road of North Central Expressway at Mockingbird Lane.

The second car, believed to be a Crown Victoria or a Mercury Grand Marquis, crashed next to the former Mrs. Baird's Bread factory and the officer stopped to help.

Three of the victims were dead at the scene. They are Eddie Pech, 36; Bernardo Andrade, 21; and Favio Andrade, 19, all of Dallas, Dallas police Sr. Cpl. Max Geron said.

Rolando de los Santos, a spokesman for the Gonzales Funeral Home in Dallas, said Bernardo and Favio Andrade were cousins.

A fourth man was rushed to Baylor University Medical Center. Geron said he was believed to be in critical condition.

Gordo’s restaurant on Lovers Lane closed Tuesday afternoon so employees could gather for a memorial to honor Pech, who had worked there for 13 years.

George Bakhshmandi, general manager and co-owner of the restaurant, said Pech started as a dishwasher and worked his way up to head cook. He loved to cook meals for employees and Bakhshmandi said Pech was like a son.

“He was very intelligent, very loyal and full of pride,†he said. “We are all devastated. Everybody loved him.â€

Pech had last worked Monday until about 10:45 p.m., excited about having Tuesday off, he said.

Ata Nikan, a waiter who has worked at Gordo’s for four years, said Pech’s dream was to open his own Mexican restaurant.

“He would always say to me, ‘Ata, when I open my own restaurant, you’re coming to work with me,’†Nikan said. “I would go to his house and hang out with him and his brother. He was always cooking. Always having a good time.â€

Alex Mehl, a neighbor at the Bennett Square apartments in the 1700 block of Bennett Avenue, said Pech had lived with his brother in a downstairs apartment for about five years. He described him as “easygoing.â€

“He had family back in Mexico and he would go back there every now and then to take them money,†Mehl said. “He really enjoyed cooking and just having a good time.â€

Elvira Gonzalez, a friend of Pech and his brother Roman, said Pech's parents are in Mexico, along with two other brothers and a sister. Pech was the only family his brother had in the country, she said.

“This has been very difficult for him to deal with,†she said.

Pech's body will be transported to Mexico on Wednesday, de los Santos said.

Geron said University Park police were handling the case, although Dallas police were assisting with interviewing witnesses and processing the crime scene.

Police had no suspects in custody as of Tuesday afternoon.

“The offense occurred in the city of University Park, so they certainly have jurisdiction on that. However, given their manpower … they were certainly overwhelmed by the gravity of the crime,†Geron said. “The whole crime scene was pretty big so we offered any assistance we could.â€

The car with the gunman was described as a late-model white Jaguar with flashy rims. The driver is believed to have two accomplices with him, police said.

Dallas police said they had received a number of tips about the Jaguar.

Police said the shootings might be related to an altercation a short time earlier at Jack's Pub & Volleyball Club in the 5500 block of Yale Boulevard. Geron acknowledged that police had responded to a disturbance at the bar and taken an incident report, but said the connection to the shooting was far from certain.

“We can’t confirm that it is, in fact, related. We have an idea perhaps it was. We would certainly like to talk to the folks that were involved,†he said.

DallasNews.com staff writer Linda Leavell and WFAA-TV reporter Cynthia Vega contributed to this report.

 

[Talon]

Well obviously it's time to lobby for the banning of sunroofs and fancy wheels. That's my take on it.

Except maybe for judges. They should be able to have both.

 

[moa]

Sounds like gang stuff.

 

[DigMe]

Maybe the homie had his briefcase.

brad cook

 

[birdv]

I live in DFW I think we should start banning tactical sunroofs and anything that can be mounted on a tactical sunroof.


Crap like this happens in Dallas. The thing that makes this really unique is that he did it from a moving car.

Drugs Drugs

bad guys killing other bad guys does not bug me as much as it should. on a positive note, at least this happen at 2:00am and not a 2:00pm.

 

[RRTX]

It started as just a rifle last night, then turned into an assault rifle this morning, and just a few minutes ago on the radio it had turned into an automatic weapon. Where can I pick up one of these fancy morphing rifles??? I also just heard that they think they found the Jaguar used in the shooting.

 

[NMshooter]

So that means by tomorrow it should be an electrically operated multi barreled automatic cannon firing explosive rounds...

I would not imagine too many Jaguars on the streets in Dallas, should not be too hard to find the owner, so the car is probably stolen.

 

[chris in va]

Sounds like someone watched the Matrix Reloaded too many times.

 

[RRTX]

Apparently they have the car and three suspects now. On the news they also just showed a picture very quickly of one of the shell casings found at the scene, it was only up for a moment but it looked to be 7.62x39 to me.

 

[Spreadfire Arms]

Henry Bowman stated:

"Seems a shame that it was eyewitnessed by a cop and the best description is "white or silver Jag with fancy wheels." I understand that he could not pursue, but..."


word is that the DPD police car had a suspect in custody in his car for another crime and was transporting him to jail when he witnessed it. in addition it makes no mention of how far away the officer was, nor does it mention the lighting, angle from where he was at, whether or not he was driving or stopped, etc.

he could not pursue since he would be putting his arrestee in danger and that is a lawsuit just waiting to happen.

he did the right thing by radioing in for additional units and the description and direction of travel, and attempting to render first aid to the victims.

i spent 7 years in law enforcement, I think this officer did the right thing. if you disagree then back up what you say with training and/or experience......

 

[Standing Wolf]

Where can I pick up one of these fancy morphing rifles???

Dude. Like, get real, okay? Haven't you like, heard? They're flooding the streets. Open your eyes, man!

It's Bush's fault.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

moa said,

Sounds like gang stuff.

Really? Based on what? Just because people fight in a bar and end up trying to kill one another on the street does not justify the conclusion that the incident was gang-related.

RRTX said,

It started as just a rifle last night, then turned into an assault rifle this morning, and just a few minutes ago on the radio it had turned into an automatic weapon.

Apparently, it was an automatic weapon. Lots of folks have automatic weapons. In fact, a tremendous number of Texas CHL holders qualified for their CHLs with automatic weapons. And you know what? Only a few have class III licenses.

How is this possible? Simple. The term 'automatic' can be applied in two different manners when refering to guns. The first is auto firing (one trigger pull to release more than one shot per pull), something that seems to be implied here by the statement saying it had turned into an automatic weapon.

The second definition fits most the the CHL guns, an auto loader. My 1911 first .45 acp ammo, or .45 Automatic Colt Pistol ammo. Automatic refers to auto loading.

Both versions of automatic are proper to use, but few folks outside of the gun world seem to understand the difference and even many gun owners do not understand the difference. With that in mind, most or all auto firing guns are also auto loading guns.

 

[RRTX]

I certainly know the difference between fully automatic and automatic in the sense of semi auto/autoloading. It was reported as an automatic weapon and again as an automatic assault rifle on the news, not the normal semi-auto assault rifle that they usually like to report everything as.