El Paso police arrest teen suspect after video shows gun being fired out of moving car
El Paso police arrested a young man after a social media video surfaced Monday morning apparently showing a driver randomly popping gunshots out the window of a moving car.
Eduardo Antonio Robles, 17, of the East Side, was arrested Monday night after he was identified by investigators and was spotted walking on a street in East El Paso, police said.
Robles was arrested on a charge of deadly conduct in connection with the shooting Sunday in a residential area near Pebble Hills Boulevard, as well as a charge of resisting arrest when he allegedly tried to flee when police arrested him, officials said Tuesday afternoon. Robles is a student at El Dorado High School.
"I understand he's young, your honor, the fact he fired a weapon at houses is very concerning to me," Assistant District Attorney Danica Carman told a magistrate judge at a Wednesday morning teleconference bond hearing for Robles. There were allegedly seven shots fired, Carman added.
In the video, a young man with braces, who appears to be a teenager, repeatedly fires a handgun out of the moving car in a 12-second clip that includes superimposed text of lyrics from the song "Shotta Flow 4" by Memphis rapper NLE Choppa.
The shooter's face is clearly visible in the video. The angle of the video indicates it was recorded by an unseen person in the front passenger seat.
The video was shared on Twitter by Fitfamep, a social media account that often shares videos of people fighting and other outrageous activity in El Paso. The site claimed the gunplay on the video occurred Sunday night in East El Paso.
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The El Paso Times is not sharing the video because the shooter initially appeared to possibly be a juvenile. Under Texas law, people 17 and older are considered adults in the criminal justice system.
A police spokesman said that investigators with the Gang Unit became aware of the video on Monday morning. There have been no known injuries or damages from the shooting and the investigation continues. The suspected shooter was identified by police with the Socorro Independent School District, the prosecutor said.
Under Texas law, it is illegal to recklessly discharge a firearm in municipalities, and police warn that the practice can be extremely dangerous to innocent bystanders.
"The El Paso Police Department would like to thank the community for providing information that led to the arrest of Robles. This type of reckless behavior will not be tolerated in our city," the department said in a news release.
Robles was booked into the El Paso County Jail in Downtown under a $175,000 bond, which was lowered on Wednesday by a magistrate judge to $85,000. Jail records show Robles remained jailed.
Anyone with information regarding the video, illegal guns or any other shooting may call police at 915-832-4400 or may anonymously call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at 915-566-8477 (TIPS).
Past El Paso viral shooting videos net guilty pleas, sentences
There have been similar cases in recent years of people recorded randomly shooting out of moving cars on streets and highways in El Paso.
In November 2019, two brothers, Ruben Armando Macias and Josue Efrain Macias, were arrested by the police SWAT team after a viral video showed them firing guns while on the Patriot Freeway in Northeast El Paso.
The brothers (who at the time were 23 and 21 years old) allegedly told police gang investigators they were celebrating their father's birthday by shooting "firearms up in the air as they do in Mexico."
Court records show each brother pleaded guilty to a felony charge of deadly conduct last June in 384th District Court.
Judge Patrick Garcia sentenced Ruben Macias to four years of deferred adjudication probation, while Josue Macias was given six years, along with a $1,000 fine and 500 hours of community service for each. Deferred adjudication is a type of probation where the charge is dismissed if the terms of probation are successfully met.
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In December 2019, then-Fort Bliss soldier Jonathan Jay Oneal, who at the time was 26, was arrested following a video showing him smiling while repeatedly cocking and shooting a firearm several times into the air from a vehicle on the Patriot Freeway near Spur 601.
In April 2021, Oneal pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of discharge of a firearm and was sentenced to a year in jail by County Criminal Court Judge Jesus R. Herrera, according to court records.
Records also show Oneal was separately sentenced later that year to 10 years of deferred adjudication probation, a $2,000 fine and 200 hours of community service in the assault and robbery of two men at a Northeast house party in 2020.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso police arrest teen after video shows gun shot from moving car
