A man has been charged with murder following the discovery of a man shot dead in Garland Saturday morning.
Garland Police responded to the 500 block of West Oates Road at approximately 2 a.m. after receiving reports of a person shot outside a business there. Officers found a man suffering from a gunshot wound upon their arrival.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene some time after Garland Fire Department paramedics responded.
Initial investigations into the shooting revealed that the victim and the suspect, later identified as 31-year-old Ezequiel Hernandez, had been involved in an argument earlier in the night while inside the business.
Police have not publicly identified the victim, but Jeremy Ramos said the man killed was his older brother, Carlos, who had recently moved back from New Jersey.
For Ramos, the loss has been difficult to comprehend, especially because he had spent time with his brother just two weeks earlier.
“Carlos was that guy that you could call at like four in the morning and just be like, Hey man, I really like, I need it. You know, I need you to help me come. And he would show up,” Ramos said.
Ramos questioned how a disagreement could escalate into deadly violence.
“But taking someone’s life for a game of a pool, that’s senseless,” Ramos said.
Beyond being a brother, Carlos was also a loving uncle and the father of a teenage son.
Ramos said his brother loved his son deeply and wanted more opportunities to spend time with him. Now, those plans will never become reality.
“He loved his son a lot,” Ramos said. “He can’t accomplish that mission no more.”
Ramos said his family was still struggling to process the loss and the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death.
“You definitely cannot justify shooting somebody, point blank, two times, and then more times in the body,” Ramos said.
He also had a message for the man accused of killing his brother.
“Maybe he does have kids, and maybe he doesn’t. But if he loses one, he’ll understand what he took from someone that’s not replaceable,” Ramos said.
For a family that had just welcomed Carlos back to Texas, the time they expected to spend together has been cut short.
“You can play another game of pool. You can have another drink of alcohol. You can’t have another Carlos,” Ramos said.
Investigators believe the suspect shot the victim in the parking lot before fleeing the scene in a white Ford F-250 some time after the business closed. The vehicle and Hernandez were found at a residence in the 1300 block of Summit Street in Mesquite.
Authorities arrested and charged Hernandez with Murder. He is being held in the Garland Detention Center with no bail, as of Oct. 17.
Police said this investigation is ongoing and the victim’s identity will be revealed at a later time.
