Toddler’s accidental shooting connects dad to separate Easter killing, Texas cops say
.jpg "A toddler accidentally shot himself in Texas, and the gun links his father to the murder of another man on Easter.")
A tragic accident involving a toddler led police to a man they say killed a Texas father during a robbery days earlier on Easter Sunday.
The suspect is the toddler’s 23-year-old dad.
According to police, a 3-year-old boy unintentionally shot himself on April 8, and the gun taken from the scene turned out to be the same one used four days earlier in the killing of Michael Vasquez, 37, outside of a Dave & Buster’s in Houston, KHOU reported.
Vasquez was in the parking lot with his 10-year-old daughter when a man came up, put Vasquez in a chokehold with a gun to his head and demanded his jewelry, according to the station. The man shot Vasquez and fled.
After matching a shell casing from the fatal robbery to one from the toddler’s shooting, police arrested the 3-year-old’s father in the shooting at Dave & Buster’s, The Associated Press reported.
Nicholas Thomas, 23, has been charged with capital murder and his bail was set at $150,000 on Thursday, KTRK reported.
The white SUV Thomas allegedly escaped in also ties him to the crime, according to KTRK, as it’s registered to his girlfriend’s mother, and he was known to use it.
“We felt relieved that they finally caught somebody because, to be honest, I thought they weren’t ever going to find somebody,” Miguel’s niece told KPRC.
For Miguel’s wife and two children, grief comes every day. Two months have passed and the loss feels no lighter.
“There are no words to describe how he destroyed our family,” his niece said.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 4:43 PM.