Gabriel Alva Vasquez, shown here in an undated photo with his daughter, Alicia, was killed early Jan. 17 outside his mobile home in south Kyle. (Courtesy photo)
by SEAN KIMMONS
Gabriel Alva Vasquez was no stranger to the law before he was murdered last week. He had been arrested several times for assault and served five years in prison on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. However, to those who knew him best, there was more to him than just his rap sheet.
Early Jan. 17, Vasquez was found shot to death in front of a vacant mobile home inside the Aztec Village Mobile Home Park in south Kyle. As of Tuesday, the Kyle Police Department still has no motive or suspects in the fatal shooting but detectives are following up on leads.
Justice of the Peace Pct. 2, Beth Smith, confirmed that the 36-year-old sustained “multiple gunshot wounds” and has ordered an autopsy at Central Texas Autopsy in Lockhart.
More than 100 mourners gathered for Vasquez’s rosary service to pay their respects before he was laid to rest on Friday at Memory Lawn Memorial Park in Martindale, family members said.
“He was a loving person,” his older brother Ernest Alva, 38, said Saturday. “He was very humble and would go out of his way for people.”
That fateful night, Alva and Vasquez were at Cat’s Billiards in San Marcos, where they regularly played pool. At about 1:45 a.m., they left the bar separately and Vasquez told his brother that he had to stop at a friend’s place before heading back to the mobile home park, where they lived together, Alva said.
“That was the last time I saw my brother,” Alva said. “He told me that I’d see him at the house.”
Shots fired
At around 4:10 a.m., Kyle police received several calls reporting shots fired inside the park. Neighbors said that they heard about four or five gunshots, then a pause, followed by a volley of four or five more shots.
“I heard a lot of gunshots, and then a car sped off,” said Alva, who found his brother on the ground next to their home. Alva said he believes his brother was ambushed when he returned home from the bar.
“I was thinking it was a setup,” he said.
With a lack of information, Alva and others have been left with unanswered questions.
“Why would they do it?” Alva asked. “I just want to know why they would take our loved one away. It’s hurting us.”
No matter what happens, Alva said his devout Catholic background will allow him not to hold a grudge.
“Whoever killed my brother, I’ll forgive them,” he said.
Friends say that Vasquez’s death could stem from someone with a vendetta against Vasquez, who would often stick up for his friends and family.
“I wouldn’t put it past it,” longtime friend Felix Hernandez said. “I figured it was straight up jealous, or someone avenging what he did to him in the past.”
Hernandez grew up with Vasquez in the Allen Woods housing project in San Marcos. Both were also jailmates at the prison in Sugar Land, where Vasquez served five years for a 1994 aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge out of Comal County, according to court records.
“This dude was a bad dude, but he wasn’t a bad person,” Hernandez said. “He was very understanding. You could talk to him and he would listen.”
And to be shot and left for dead on the street is no way to die, Hernandez said.
“Nobody deserves that,” he said.
Family man
Vasquez, who worked as an independent truck driver, had multiple run-ins with the law, having been arrested 11 times since 1993, most recently in July when he was arrested for assault causing bodily injury.
He also served time in prison for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute.
Those close to him, however, remember Vasquez primarily as being family-oriented.
“He had a rap sheet but there was more to him,” his cousin Gabriel Gutierrez said. “That shouldn’t define you as a person. He was liked and loved.”
Vasquez is survived by his son and daughter, who both attend high school in San Marcos.
His younger brother, David Martinez, 28, vowed to his brother that he would help care for his kids if something ever happened to him. It’s only fair, Martinez said, to look after his kids since he protected him while growing up.
“He took care of me,” he said. “He was like a father to me. Whenever I was in trouble, he was there.”
Martinez urged anyone who has information that could help catch his brother’s killer to come forward.
“Give us something, so this person goes to jail,” he said.
Anyone with information regarding this homicide is asked to contact the Kyle Police Department at 268-3232.
