IRVING, Texas — The search for a man considered armed and dangerous is expanding to South Texas, the Irving Police Department said Monday.
On Sunday, officers were sent to the 200 block of Ouida Street on a report of a disturbance. Upon arriving at the scene, police said, officers found a man in a driveway with multiple gunshot wounds and attempted to perform life-saving measures. The Irving Fire Department medics also responded to the scene, police said, and pronounced the man dead.
The victim's family identified him as 24-year-old Abel Alvarado Martinez. He just celebrated his birthday on Friday, two days before his murder.
The suspected gunman left the scene before officers arrived and have reason to believe he may have traveled to Mexico. Investigators have identified him as 32-year-old Erik Natanael Amador Godoy.
Alvarado Martinez's sister, who asked WFAA not to be identified due to concern for her family's safety, said the shooting happened after the suspect and his family were in a dispute with her brother.
According to Alvarado Martinez's sister, Amador Godoy and his siblings were tenants in the family's guest house. While Amador Godoy was out of town for work, his younger brothers caused damage to one of her family's vehicles, she said.
Alvarado Martinez confronted the tenants about the vehicle damage, then he was shot.
"I could still hear the ringing from the shots," the victim's sister said. "All I heard was four shots, then I heard more."
She told WFAA she waited for the suspect to drive away before running outside.
"I started screaming: 'Abel, where are you?'" I thought he was alive, I started checking him... he was already gone," she said.
She discovered her brother's body in the family's driveway. The loss of her brother comes less than a year after she lost her mother to cancer.
"I just wish it was all a dream I could wake up from," she said.
"Amador Godoy should be considered armed and dangerous. Do not attempt to contact or apprehend this individual," police said in a news release.
He was last seen driving a Dark Gray Toyota Corolla, with the Texas license plate: SWD 0839.
The Corolla has a large "#TodasMienten" sticker on the top left corner of the back window, several small stickers on the trunk, and pink scratch mark stickers over the headlights, according to surveillance photos obtained by IPD.
"I just want justice to be done," the victim's sister said. "It's not fair he's out there free. He could do this to somebody else's family member."
The department urges anyone with information on the suspect's whereabouts to contact police immediately.