Man arrested, accused of multiple road-rage shootings in Dallas-Fort Worth area
A man believed to be behind multiple recent road-rage shootings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was arrested on Sunday night after allegedly carrying out another violent attack from the driver’s seat of his car.
Luis Bethancourt-Molina, 22, of Plano, was charged with aggravated deadly assault with a weapon and theft of a firearm, Garland police said in a news release. He was taken into custody after closely tailing a car on State Highway 66, police said, before driving in front of it and firing multiple shots in its direction with a black AR-style rifle. He didn’t hit the car and its driver wasn’t injured, police said.
There were four other people inside the pickup truck with him and two were arrested on other charges. Carol Orozco Sevilla, 19, of Dallas, was charged with possession of cocaine, police said. A 17-year-old passenger was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant out of Irving.
Bethancourt-Molina is the suspect in more than one road-rage shooting in the city, Garland police said, including a Thursday night incident in which he shot multiple times toward a car that had cut him off. A bullet struck a man in the passenger seat, injuring him.
The Thursday and Sunday incidents in Garland bear similarities, with Bethancourt-Molina — behind the wheel of a Dodge Ram — allegedly tailing a car before firing at it.
Lt. Pedro Barineau, a police spokesperson, said in an email on Tuesday what’s certain is Bethancourt-Molina was involved in both of these shootings. “We are still trying to determine which other offenses he was involved in,” he said.
He also noted that while the victim in the Thursday evening shooting described the weapon as a handgun, “it’s very possible” it was actually the same AR-style rifle. The rifle has a grip on its barrel that — sticking out of the truck’s window — could be confused with a handgun.
In the Sunday night shooting, Garland officers determined the driver of the other car — a blue Jeep — was heading west on State Highway 66 near Dairy Road when he noticed a pickup truck speeding as it followed behind him, police said. Bethancourt-Molina was getting close to the Jeep’s bumper, police said, when he moved to the side of the car. He then drove in front of it.
Bethancourt-Molina used the AR-style rifle to fire toward the car at this time, police said. The department later determined the rifle had been stolen from Richland Hills.
As units were responding to the shooting a little before 7 p.m. on Sunday, police informed them the suspect had driven away in the direction of the Garland Police Department, according to the news release.
Officers who were in that area saw the Dodge heading west on Forest Lane, swerving from one lane to another, police said. An officer reportedly pulled up behind the truck in the 2500 block of the road and Bethancourt-Molina quickly drove into a shopping center. He was arrested, along with the other two people in the truck.
Officers found an AR-15 22-caliber rifle in the truck ready to be fired, with one round in the chamber, police said. They also found live bullets and spent shell casings as well as the cocaine.
The three people arrested are being held in the Garland Detention Center, police said.
