Shooting suspect tells Fort Worth police he planned to scare victim but killed him instead
Taylor Avent told a friend that if he drove him around on Sunday night he would give him $300.
They went to Walmart, Red Lobster and Dicks Sporting Goods, the friend would later tell a Fort Worth Police Department detective.
Their final stop was at apartments off of White Settlement Road in west Fort Worth. Avent directed the friend to park across the street, in a residential area and out of sight, the friend said.
Avent, 29, said he was supposed to meet someone and purchase marijuana, the friend told Detective Tom O’Brien. After Avent left the car, the friend heard gunshots and when Avent got back to the car, he admitted to killing a man, according to the affidavit that another detective, Leah Dickerson, wrote in support of an arrest warrant for murder.
Avent shot 27-year-old Jonathan Rocha to death outside the apartments, police concluded.
Rocha was shot about 10 p.m. in the 100 block of Nursery Lane. He died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Rocha’s body was lying in the street when officers arrived.
Detectives Dickerson and O’Brien interviewed Avent.
The suspect said that he went to the apartments because he was supposed to scare Rocha, who he has known since high school, according to the affidavit.
Avent told the detectives that the victim owed someone money for a cocaine deal and that he had been hiding.
Avent explained that he saw the victim’s red truck in the area and that he hid until he saw Rocha walking toward him.
On Sunday, Avent was given the Nursery Lane address for the victim, according to the affidavit. Avent said that he used a 9mm Taurus “burner gun” that he picked up from someone earlier Sunday and a “burner phone,” according to the affidavit.
Avent said that he was wearing a ski mask that he recently bought at Dicks Sporting Goods and when he saw Rocha, he started shooting him, according to the affidavit.
“He meant to just scare him and then just began to shoot the victim,” Dickerson wrote, describing Avent’s account in the affidavit.
This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 7:44 AM.
