A Fort Worth man is facing possible felony charges after police say he was shooting at passing cars along a freeway before scaling to the top of a home and threatened to shoot.
Jorge Gonzales, 43, was booked into the Tarrant County jail on three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm.
Officer Buddy Calzada with the Fort Worth Police Department said around 10 p.m. Christmas night, they received calls the suspect was pointing a weapon at cars passing along the freeway near Alta Mesa – firing it at cars and also into the air.
At least one car was hit, Officer Calzada said.
“There were three occupants inside that vehicle and one of the occupants was either struck in the hand by one of these bullets or by the glass shards that came from the window,” according to Calzada, who added the person was treated by MedStar but did not need to be transported to a hospital.
Police were then notified Gonzales ran behind a motel along South Freeway and advised their Air One helicopter to look for him, eventually locating him on top of a home on Avon Street about a quarter mile away from the freeway.
He was only wearing basketball shorts at the time and even stripped down at one point, according to police reports.
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“Our biggest concern was the residents inside that house – our officers did a phenomenal job at getting every resident inside that house out safely,” Calzada said. “He was threatening any onlookers that he would shoot them. Whether he had a gun in his possession while he was on the roof or not – that’s still to be determined.”
One of those onlookers was Sequita Perkin’s daughter.
“He was like telling her to help him – if not, then he was going to kill her,” Perkins said. “Fortunately, she locked her door and you know, kind of got away…but my little cousin was in there with her baby.”
Crystal Avalos lives across the street from the home and was stunned to see what was happening as police surrounded her neighbor’s home.
“Police told him on the speaker, 'get off the roof…get your hands up.' The guy does put his hands up,” Avalos recalled. “He was like 'I don’t have nothing! I don’t have nothing!', so he takes his shorts off. He’s butt naked on the roof with his hands up. I was like, oh my god.”
Police were able to locate a rifle in the backyard along with a handgun left behind in Gonzales’ car, which was reportedly abandoned on the side of a nearby building.
A motive remains under investigation, Calzada told NBC 5.
“This is literally a Christmas miracle to have this many officers respond to this deadly of a situation and have no officers injured and no residents injured, this is absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing that no one else was injured,” he said.
According to online records, Gonzales does not have an attorney at this point. He remains jail on a $330,000 bond as of Thursday evening.
