More than a year after a deadly confrontation outside an Austin tire shop, a man has been charged with murder, officials said. David Michael Flores, 45, was arrested earlier this month for the stabbing death of Victor Hernandez, 43, an incident that occurred on Sept. 17, 2022, at the business on Research Boulevard, CBS Austin reported.
According to court documents, the altercation started when Hernandez and a witness were unloading furniture at the location; Flores then arrived on a bicycle and was confronted, according to a witness, Hernandez asked Flores to vacate the premises—and the situation escalated with insults and threats exchanged between the two men, as Flores allegedly produced a folding knife and stabbed Hernandez once in the chest, after being struck with a belt by Hernandez, Flores fled on foot leaving Hernandez to collapse and later die from his injuries at a local medical facility, the Austin-based KXAN detailed.
After the stabbing, Flores, who claimed self-defense in the wake of the fatal event, was not initially present when police arrived but was soon located near the vicinity. A surveillance video helped authorities piece together the sequence of events, showing Hernandez approaching Flores and then succumbing to the single fatal stab wound. Despite an earlier detention by the police for questioning, it remains unclear why an arrest warrant was only issued more than a year following the homicide.
Currently, after being charged, Flores met a $300,000 bond and has been released from the Travis County jail; meanwhile, his legal representation has not yet released a statement regarding his charge, although a statement is anticipated and will be used for an update on the case, this according to what KXAN has gleaned from sources close to the issue at hand, amid questions surrounding the circumstances leading to the deadly exchange outside a tire shop that has marked another life lost to the growing ledger of urban tragedies.
