According to the family, Byron Carrillo killed four people over the weekend, including his 1-year-old son. Police say he cut off his ankle monitor around the time of the murders and then tried to run. NBC 5’s Meredith Yeomans has the story.
The search for the man suspected of killing four people in Dallas Sunday afternoon and injuring another ended Sunday night after he reportedly took his own life during a pursuit with state troopers near Austin.
According to the Dallas Police Department, officers were called to a shooting in the 9700 block of Royce Drive at about 4:20 p.m. Sunday.
After they arrived, officers found the bodies of three adults, 20-year-old Vanessa De la Cruz, 33-year-old Karina Lopez, and 50-year-old Jose Lopez, and two injured children, a 15-year-old girl and 1-year-old Logan De La Cruz. A 13-year-old girl was inside the home at the time of the shooting and was not injured.
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Police said the toddler died at the hospital from his injuries. The teenage girl was treated and released.
"It hasn’t sunk in, I mean I wish they were still here but I can't believe they're not," said a sister of Karina Lopez and aunt of Vanessa De la Cruz, who did not want to be identified.
She said the 1-year-old was the first boy of the family.
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The aunt said her other nieces witnessed the shootings inside the home.
"They're broken-hearted, traumatized, because they saw what happened," said the aunt about the 15-year-old who was shot and the 13-year-old who hid. She said Karina Lopeaz had five daughters, two others were not home at the time.
Dallas Police said investigators identified the suspect on Sunday as 21-year-old Byron Carrillo. Police officials have not yet confirmed a motive in the slayings or revealed any link between the victims and the suspected shooter.
The family of the victims said Carrillo had a history of violence with Vanessa before their 1-year-old son was born. Carrillo lived next door.
"My niece was tired of it, so she moved in here, to my sister and brother-in-law's house," said the aunt about the recent move days ago.
"The baby’s father he always threatened the family, that some, someday they would be killed. It’s not the first time there have been guns pointed their way before that," said the Aunt.
Officials said Carrillo had an ankle monitor on his leg for a 2021 aggravated assault charge, but at some point immediately before or after the shooting cut off the monitor. Carrillo, officials said, then stole a vehicle and headed south on Interstate 35 toward Central Texas.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, state troopers were alerted that Carrillo was possibly traveling south on I-35 in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. At about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, a trooper spotted a vehicle that matched the description and attempted to stop the driver.
The driver refused to pull over and tried to escape but crashed into a ditch near exit 238 in North Austin.
DPS said the driver ran from the crash and went behind a business on the southbound access road. It was there, Dallas Police said, that the man stopped in a parking lot and shot himself one time in the head.
The DPS said the man later died of his injury.
Court documents obtained by NBC 5 showed Carrillo was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after being accused of threatening Vanessa De La Cruz with a weapon on Aug. 7, 2021. Court documents showed Carrillo faced a second charge for allegedly threatening Jose Gutierrez on the same day.
Bond conditions set on Nov. 20 showed Carrillo's bond was set at $100,000 and that he was not permitted alcohol, he wasn't allowed to carry a weapon and he wasn't allowed to contact the victims.
On Nov. 22, Carrillo was ordered to wear an ankle monitor. An abscond notice from Dallas County indicated a tamper warning was received at 4:22 p.m. on Dec. 3.
After a parolee with a history of cutting off his ankle monitor killed two Dallas hospital staffers last year, a law was passed that makes ankle monitor tampering a third-degree felony in Texas.
“The law is great on paper,” said Dr. Alex Del Carmen, criminal justice professor at Tarleton State University. “The problem with the law is that it assumes that all the offenders are rational and that they're going to weigh out the possibility of committing another crime by cutting into that particular ankle bracelet.”
Del Carmen says the process that allowed a suspect, like Carrillo, to get an ankle monitor in the first place needs to be reviewed.
Carrillo was expected back in court on Dec. 5.
Dallas Police said Carillo's death is being investigated by the Texas Rangers.
