Texas Man Fatally Shoots Brother's Suspected Killer: Police

A Texas man has been charged with the murder of the person suspected of killing his brother, according to Houston police.

Angel Chavira, 33, was apprehended by officers with the Houston Police Department over the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Luis Martinez at the La Michoacana meat market just before noon on May 13.

CBS-affiliate KHOU 11 reported on Sunday that Martinez parked his truck near the store at about 10 a.m. Then, 15 minutes later Chavira, along with his wife and three children, got out of their car and entered the same store. Court documents obtained by the news station stated that the family followed Martinez around the store after they entered.

The documents said after a while, Chavira, his wife, and children all left the store and went back to their car. Another car then pulled up outside, with Chavira's wife and children leaving while Chavira got into his car and waited for Martinez.

At about 11 a.m., Martinez left the store and went to get into his truck when Chavira pulled up alongside and shot him, according to KHOU 11. Following the shooting, Chavira moved his vehicle into another position and opened fire once again.

Court documents obtained by the news station also said Chavira then got out of his car armed with a handgun and fired more shots into the truck.

During their investigation, police spoke to a man who claimed to be a close friend of Martinez, KHOU 11 reported. The friend said Chavira's brother Joe was killed in a shooting in a nearby neighborhood and that he claimed the suspect threatened to kill Martinez.

Chavira is being held at the Harris County Jail with his bond set at $300,000, according to the local news station.

Newsweek has contacted the Houston Police Department for comment via email.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the United States, there have been 31 victims of gun violence in Houston since May 1 of this year.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that there were 2,391 homicides in Texas in 2021. When adjusted for the population, the homicide death rate in the Lone Star State that year was 8.2 per every 100,000 people.

Texas sits 21st across the nation when measuring homicide death rates, with the leading states being in the South. Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama led the nation in terms of death rate coming in with 23.7, 21.3, and 15.9 per 100,000 people in 2021, respectively, according to the CDC.

There have been other cases across the country where family members have resorted to killing their family member's alleged killers.

In 2021, Tityana Coppage, 21, was charged with the fatal shooting of Keith Lars in Kansas City, Missouri. Coppage is alleged to have told investigators that she believed Lars was involved in the death of her 16-year-old brother Jayson Ugwuh Jr.

In 2020, a 62-year-old woman was killed in her home in Mobile, Alabama, in what police suspected was an act of revenge. Mobile police chief Lawrence Battieste said Martha McGinsey's murder was retaliation for the killing of 25-year-old Keontae McCants in Prichard on September 29 of that year.

McGinsey's son, Sidney Zireef Burke, had been charged with murder in McCants' case.