15-year-old accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend's mother and siblings in Texas
The assailant had planned to shoot his ex-girlfriend outside the school before changing his mind and heading to her family's apartment
A Texas teenager is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend's mother and her two younger siblings in what police described as a "cowardly" and targeted act of violence.
Jennifer Rodriguez, 39, was found dead inside her luxury apartment in Odessa, Texas, along with her 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, after the unidentified teenager committed the massacre Tuesday night, according to Odessa police. Officers responded to reports of a shooting at Eighty Seventh Apartments, an upscale complex 350 miles west of Dallas, and discovered the gruesome scene around 5:45 p.m. The suspected shooter, who was not identified because of his age, had a previous relationship with Rodriguez's 15-year-old daughter and had planned to shoot her outside school before changing his mind and heading to the apartment, police revealed. The teenager was not physically harmed in the triple homicide. Police did not indicate whether she was home at the time of the shooting. “She’s okay, she wasn’t hurt… I’m sure that after everything that happened to her family, she’s not okay. But physically she was unharmed,” Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke said at a news conference Wednesday. The 15-year-old fled the scene and was captured about 40 minutes after the shooting, according to police. “From the moment it happened, we knew almost immediately who the suspect was, and after locating him, we arrested him within 40 minutes,” Gerke said. He has been charged with capital murder of multiple people, a capital felony, and is being held at the Ector County Juvenile Center. Authorities have not revealed a motive for the murders. A handgun, believed to have been used in the shooting, was recovered, and authorities hope the investigation will conclude that it was the firearm used in the murders. Gerke described the shooting as a targeted attack with no gang affiliation.and stated that his department knows who purchased the weapon, but did not reveal how the teenager obtained it. Texas has the death penalty, but does not impose it on convicted murderers who were under 18 at the time of the crime. “Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and everyone connected with last night’s tragedy. It was a tragic and cowardly act of violence,” Gerke said.

