Curious residents of the Aztec Village Mobile Home Park walk around an abandoned mobile home where a 36-year-old man was found shot to death early Monday morning. (photo by Sean Kimmons)
by SEAN KIMMONS
A bloodstain outside an abandoned mobile home marks the spot where a Kyle man was shot to death early Monday morning, the first homicide in the city in more than six years.
At 4:10 a.m., Kyle Police Department received several calls of shots being fired at the Aztec Village Mobile Home Park, 291 Roland Lane in south Kyle. Officers located the body of a Hispanic male laying near a vacant mobile home, city officials said.
The body has been identified as Gabriel Vasquez, 36, who is a resident of the park. Justice of the Peace Pct. 2 Beth Smith pronounced the victim deceased, city officials said. As of Tuesday afternoon, police said they have not identified a motive or suspects in the shooting.
A resident of the mobile home park said that she heard four or five shots, then a pause of a few seconds, followed by a volley of four or five more shots.
“I was afraid,” Pamela Fultz said. “I didn’t want to come outside.”
Fultz called the police and eventually went outside with other neighbors when she saw two men on their knees praying next to the body.
“One of the men was screaming at the top of his lungs saying, ‘My brother, my brother!”’ Fultz said.
Police spoke to both men and took one away in a squad car, possibly to be questioned, Fultz said. She also overheard one of the men tell police that they were being followed before the shooting.
Nearby, Jesse Bergmann said that he was woken up by his wife, who heard the shots. Bergmann said that at least 10 emergency vehicles responded to the incident, and crime scene tape lined the street.
“It was a lot of commotion and excitement early in the morning,” he said.
The manager of the park said that Vasquez was an unapproved tenant. Neighbors interviewed by the Hays Free Press said they did not know Vasquez.
Court records indicate Vasquez has a San Marcos address and he was scheduled to go to trial Feb. 3 for an assault with bodily injury charge, a Class A misdemeanor, which occurred in July 2010.
Anyone with information regarding this homicide is asked to contact the Kyle Police Department at 268-3232.
The last reported homicide in Kyle was Oct. 2, 2004, when Jasper Foster stabbed his wife Terri Foster to death. Foster was convicted in November 2005 and sentenced 80 years in prison.
