A man is dead and a 31-year-old is behind bars on a murder charge after Garland police say an argument inside a business early Saturday spilled into the parking lot and ended in gunfire. Officers responded to a report of a person shot outside a business in the 500 block of West Oates Road around 2 a.m., finding an adult man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to CBS News Texas, investigators believe the victim and the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Ezequiel Hernandez, had argued inside the business earlier that night before the confrontation turned deadly once the business closed. Police say Hernandez shot the victim in the parking lot and then fled the area in a white Ford F-250 pickup truck. The Garland Police Department said Garland Fire Department paramedics also responded to the scene.
Suspect Tracked Down Across City Lines in Mesquite
The search for Hernandez didn't take investigators far from Garland. Police later located both the truck and Hernandez himself at a residence in the 1300 block of Summit Street in Mesquite, per the same CBS News Texas report. He was taken into custody there and transported to the Garland Detention Center, where he now faces a murder charge. As of publication, bond had not been set.
Police have withheld the identity of the man killed in the shooting while they work to notify his next of kin, the station's report notes. Investigators have not released further details about what sparked the initial argument inside the business, and the case remains under active investigation.
Second Early-Morning Shooting Highlights a Rough Stretch for Garland
The West Oates Road shooting comes amid a separate, unrelated case that has also kept Garland police busy. In that incident, officers were called to an apartment complex in the 4500 block of Chaha Road just before 2 a.m. after a woman was found with a gunshot wound in the parking lot, according to WFAA. That victim, later identified as 36-year-old Stephanie Wenneberg, died after being taken to a local hospital. Police identified the suspect in that case as 39-year-old Dallas resident Robert Ray Kelly, accused of shooting one of the women involved in a parking-lot altercation before fleeing the scene; WFAA reported that police believed that shooting to be an isolated event at the time.
Garland maintains public crime statistics and maps through the City of Garland, which says the data is meant to make residents more aware of reported criminal activity across the city. The city's police department also compiles an annual report, with a 2025 edition referenced on its Police Annual Reports page.
For now, the investigation into the West Oates Road shooting remains ongoing, and police have not released additional details about the nature of the earlier argument that preceded the killing. Anyone with information has not yet been given a specific tip line through the materials released so far.
