More than a month after a 14-year-old Lamar High School student was gunned down in west Houston, a teenaged suspect has been arrested in the case.
Police said the shooting happened shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday, May 6 outside of the apartment complex where Axel Turcios lived on Ella Lee Lane. Authorities said a good Samaritan heard the shooting and aided Axel, who later died at the hospital.
That witness told police that Axel was shot during a what appeared to be a robbery. Two Hispanic males between ages 15 and 17 were spotted fleeing the scene and getting into a PT Cruiser, the witness told police.
On May 19, Houston leaders were joined by Axel’s family as they pleaded with the public for help finding the “vicious killers,” and offered a $25,000 reward for information in the case.
“We want to find these individuals who did this. We want to hold them accountable and we fully understand that it should have not happened to Axel, and we don’t want it to happen to any other person,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said during the conference. “We can’t bring back Axel, who was lost to a senseless crime, but we surely can bring some peace and closure to this family by finding the persons who are responsible for what happened to Axel.”
Houston police say that after that news conference, detectives received information that led to the identity of the suspects. Further investigation resulted in the arrest of Ramiro Hernandez, 17, on Wednesday. He’s been charged with capital murder. At this time, Hernandez is the only individual being charged.
“Even the neighborhoods have rules. It’s a 14-year-old kid, an innocent kid, his whole life ahead of him. It’s senseless. It makes no sense, and it angers me,” HPD Chief Troy Finner said in May. “I’m asking whoever knows something to please step up to do the right thing. Bring some peace and some sense of closure to this family that’s hurting so bad right now.”