Arlington shooting victim dies in hospital. 4 suspects charged with capital murder: police
Four suspects, including a minor, have been charged with capital murder after a 34-year-old shooting victim died in an Arlington hospital Wednesday, officials said.
Officers responded to a shooting in the 4900 block of Little Road around 3 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 15. They found Juan Sosa with a gunshot wound inside a parked vehicle, Arlington police said.
Sosa died in the operating room of Medical City Arlington on Dec. 18, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner. His death has been ruled a homicide.
A woman who was with the victim told officers that the two were inside the vehicle when another car pulled in behind them. Several males got out and demanded that Sosa and the woman exit their vehicle. At least one of the suspects displayed a gun, according to police.
Multiple shots were fired, and Sosa was hit. The woman with him was not injured, police said. The suspects drove away from the scene immediately after the shooting.
Witnesses and surveillance footage of the area showed the suspects’ car to be a Honda Civic. Arlington patrol officers spotted the Civic around 5 a.m. in the 1600 block of Parkway Lane, police said. Officers attempted to pull it over, along with a Lincoln Town Car that seemed to be following the Civic.
The Civic sped away from police, but the other car stopped. Officers determined that two of the Lincoln’s occupants, 20-year-old Humberto Barajas and a teenage male, were connected to Sosa’s shooting, police said. Both suspects were arrested.
The teenager’s identity hasn’t been released because he’s a minor.
Officers located the Civic a short time later in the 2100 block of Browning Drive. It had been wrecked, according to police. Seventeen-year-old Angel Barajas was taken into custody. It’s believed he was a passenger in the car.
The Civic’s driver, 17-year-old Ja’Tavies Jones, fled the scene, police said. Members of the U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force arrested him in Arlington on Thursday, Dec. 19.
Investigators later learned that the Civic was reported stolen out of Dallas the night of Dec. 14. The Lincoln Town Car was reported stolen during an armed carjacking in Grand Prairie around 4:20 a.m. Dec. 15, officials said.
Police said they believe the four suspects are also connected to a separate Dec. 15 shooting that occurred around 1:30 a.m. at an Arlington apartment complex in the 2900 block of Deer Creek Drive.
A 32-year-old woman and a dog received non-life-threatening injuries in that shooting. The suspects were seen leaving in the same Honda Civic that was involved in Sosa’s fatal shooting, according to police.
“We believe the suspects were on a violent crime spree across North Texas and we knew we needed to get them off the streets before they had the opportunity to commit additional crimes,” Police Chief Al Jones said in a post on X. “I’m proud of all the @ArlingtonPD units that worked around the clock this week to ID & arrest them.”
Humberto Barajas is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a bond of over $1 million. He faces multiple charges, including capital murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, animal cruelty and aggravated robbery, according to court records.
Angel Barajas faces seven charges, including capital murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, animal cruelty, aggravated robbery and evading arrest, court records state. He’s being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a bond of over $1.3 million.
Ja’Tavies Jones was booked into the Arlington City Jail on warrants for capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to police. Additional charges against him are pending.
The teenage suspect was taken to the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center. He also faces one charge of capital murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, one count of aggravated robbery and one count of animal cruelty, police said.
