A suspected serial killer has been arrested in Texas. Who is Jose Gilberto Rodriguez?
Police in Houston say they’ve caught a man connected to five shootings, including three killings, in the last week.
Jose Gilberto Rodriguez, 46, was arrested Tuesday morning by authorities near Houston, Texas, and taken into custody as “a person of strong interest” in a string of shootings dating back to July 9, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in an address to the public.
Rodriguez led police on a brief chase Tuesday morning in northwest Harris County, KHOU reported, before surrendering in a gray sedan. Police warned a day before that he was adept at changing cars.
“We are very relieved this morning,” Gonzalez told the Houston Chronicle, while noting that Rodriguez could have been casing the area for another potential victim. Gonzalez tweeted Monday that Rodriguez is “considered a serial killer.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office officially named Rodriguez a multiple murder suspect early Wednesday afternoon, according to a news release.
“This individual we believe has actually cased neighborhoods, has actually gone to doors, knocked on doors, pretending that he’s looking for somebody,” Acevedo said Monday.
Rodriguez, 46, is a parolee with a violent past, according to KPRC. His first violent crime came in 1989 the station reported, when he broke into a home and stole a vehicle from a family, and was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
While in prison, KHOU reported, Rodriguez was convicted of being in possession of a deadly weapon, which added 10 years to his sentence. His 25-year sentence was over in 2014, and he served just three years of his additional 10-year-sentence.
He was released in September 2017, according to the Chronicle. Rodriguez had been on parole for the last nine months, wearing an ankle monitor.
His ankle bracelet alerted county officials to possible tampering on July 9. That was the same day a 62-year-old widow who liked to read the Bible and bake cookies for her neighbors was the first to die in the string of incidents police are tying to Rodriguez, according to KHOU.
Pamela Johnson was killed at her home in Cypress, a suburb of Houston, and her car was stolen. Her body was found Friday, the Chronicle reported.
The next two killings took place at Houston-area mattress stores, according to KPRC, and surveillance video from the first store shows a man who resembles Rodriguez get out of a car matching the description of Pamela Johnson’s.
A 28-year-old Mattress Firm employee named Allie Barrow was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound in the back of her head Saturday. A coworker found her body in the back of the northwest Houston store on Saturday, the station reported.
Then on Monday, an employee of Houston Mattress One was found shot to death at the store that employed him. Edward Magana was pronounced dead at the scene of that shooting, according to KTRK.
A Houston Metro bus driver was shot along the way as well. He was in critical condition Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported.
This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 2:27 PM.