Quote:
Originally posted by hoosier
What is any decent person doing at an ATM at 5:00 in th morning?
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Interesting comment & assumption. It would be a shame to insinuate that the kid did something to deserve being shot to death for the mere fact that he was on the streets at a time when the streets are not normally busy, without any facts to back up that assumption....
Anyway, as the article below states, his killers have admitted that he was chosen at random.
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Murder suspects nabbed
Pair arrested in killing of Tech student
BY JOHN REYNOLDS
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Cousins Joe and Gabriel Gonzales were charged Friday with capital murder in connection to the recent shooting death of Colin Schafer at an automated teller machine, a crime they confessed was motivated by robbery.
The selection of the 21-year-old Texas Tech student as their victim appeared to be happenstance.
Joe Gonzales, 19, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Judge Aurora Chai des-Hernandez's courtroom. Bond was set at $5 million.
Deputies returned Joe Gonzales to Lubbock County Jail, where he had been held since Thursday on a count of deadly conduct in connection to a shooting after a dispute early that morning at a house in the 5300 block of 47th Street.
Gabriel Gonzales, who turned 17 Friday, originally was charged as a juvenile; however, the Criminal District Attorney's Office "will start the process of getting him certified as an adult," First Assistant Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell said.
Once certified, he will stand trial as an adult, although the death penalty will not be a sentencing option, Powell said.
Gabriel Gonzales also faces a deadly conduct charge in connection to Thursday's shooting, Powell said.
As for Joe Gonzales, "it's way too early in the game to decide whether we're seeking the death penalty," Powell said.
According to a voluntary statement made to investigators, Gabriel Gonzales "said that he and Jo Jo (Joe) went out cruising in the Cadillac looking for someone to rob."
After driving for two hours the morning of Aug. 14, Gabriel Gonzales spotted Schafer's white Jeep near 19th Street and Quaker Avenue and chose him as their victim, the statement said.
Schafer "was not in a situation that would have caused him to be killed," Powell said. "He was not engaged in any kind of activity that would lead him to be killed, in my opinion."
In fact, in Gabriel Gonzales' statement, he seemed to indicate he shot Schafer for no reason at all.
When Detective Doug Sutton asked, "Why did you shoot the boy after he gave you his money?" Gonzales replied, "Just for the (expletive) of it, detective."
Joe Gonzales, in his statement, told investigators he got involved in the robbery because he didn't trust his cousin with his car.
"I didn't want to let Gabriel have my car because it's my Cadillac," the statement said. "It's too nice a car to just loan out. So I tell Gabriel, let's go; I'll just take you."
The pair followed Schafer to his home, where Gabriel Gonzales forced him at gunpoint to drive to the Bank of America ATM near the intersection of 50th Street and Slide Road.
Joe Gonzales followed Schafer's Jeep.
He witnessed his cousin force Schafer to withdraw $300 — the maximum withdrawal — from the machine.
Afterward, the robbery turned deadly.
According to Joe Gonzales' statement, his cousin "just looked back into the car and I hear this 'boom, boom.' Gabriel, the crazy (expletive), actually just stands there, looking at the dude he just shot."
"It was like five or six seconds, and Gabriel is still just standing there ... like he was just watching the dude and what he had just done," Joe Gonzales told police, according to police documents.
The pair then fled in Joe Gonzales' dark blue Cadillac.
When asked by police why he hadn't reported the shooting to police, Joe Gonzales said, "Because I was scared that I was going to go down for it too. I didn't want to be like my dad and spend my life in prison," the report said.
Homicide Sgt. John Gomez credited the break in the case to Officer David Paulk, who noticed similarities between Thursday's shooting and the ATM murder.
In Thursday's incident, Joe Gonzales allegedly shot at the house after quarreling with a house guest, according to police reports.
Paulk brought the report to the attention of de tec tives, who were then able to move quickly against the cousins.
Detectives conducted a search Thursday afternoon at Joe Gonzales' residence at 5508-A 13th St.
They recovered Schafer's wallet, which had been partially burned in the fireplace, reports said. Detectives also found a burned paper with Schafer's name on it and a burned insurance card bearing his mother's name.
A 9 mm rifle was recovered from the house, and one spent 9 mm cartridge and one un fired 9 mm cartridge were found in the Cadillac, reports said.
It was "good, good police work on (Paulk's) part," Gomez said.
Gomez also singled out the work of the SWAT team that nabbed the Gonzales cousins without incident, and the Department of Public Safety, which allowed detectives to use their labs to process evidence.
Schafer's mother and older brother said they had mixed feelings on being told his killers were in custody.
"It gets us closer to healing," Susan Schafer said. "My son and I have been talking about this. In society, we have a tendency to focus on the criminal. I'm concentrating on how to live without Colin."
Dylan Schafer expressed satisfaction with the work police did to put his brother's accused killers behind bars.
"We're happy they do their job and do it well," he said. "We're putting our faith in the judicial system."
(Staff writer Elizabeth Lang ton contributed to this report.)
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