Texas Man Wanted After Shooting Wife Dead Over Divorce: Police

Police in Texas man are hunting a man after the fatal shooting of his wife, who was in the process of divorcing him.

Harris County Police said Ever Navarrete, 55, has been charged in connection with the death of his wife in the Pine Village North area of northeast Houston on Sunday, and is wanted by law enforcement.

Officers were first alerted to reports of a shooting at about midnight at the 12200 block of West Village Drive.

When they arrived, they found a 48-year-old woman had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and she was taken to a nearby hospital.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez later confirmed in a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, that the woman was pronounced deceased at the hospital.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the country, 123 people have been shot dead in Texas between September 1 and October 1 this year. This figure does not include deaths of perpetrators or suspects.

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about one in five homicide victims is killed by an intimate partner.

The CDC says that crime reports reveal that more than half of female homicide victims in the U.S. are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.

According to ABC13, family members told police the woman was preparing to divorce Navarrete, who she had been married to for about 30 years, and that she had recently moved to the area where she was killed.

Gonzalez told the network: "[Navarrete] arrived here at this location, confronted her, and opened fire on her. We always say that during that time when a couple is splitting up or talking divorce, it can be oftentimes the most volatile. In this case, this proved to be true once again."

Gonzalez continued: "It appears from what we are gathering that this was meant to be a safe place for her. I don't know how he would have found out or if someone told him, but when somebody's hellbent on finding [someone], they ultimately will."

Navarrete is said to have fled the scene of the shooting in a white 2002 GMC Sierra pickup with the Texas license plate: PBV-3006.

Anyone with any information about Navarrete and his whereabouts has been asked to contact Harris County police at 713-274-9100 or @CrimeStopHou 713-222-TIPS (8477).

Newsweek has contacted the Harris County Sheriff's Office for comment via email.