HOUSTON – A suspect accused of fatally shooting a man in the Heights area in 2021 has been arrested and charged, the Houston Police Department said.
Jose Leopoldo Fortiz, 45, is charged with murder in the 482nd State District Court. He is accused in the death of 45-year-old Jose Mazariegos.
On Oct. 5, officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 500 block of Oxford Street at about 10:05 p.m.
Police said when they arrived, they found Mazariegos lying in the roadway with a gunshot wound to the chest. Houston Fire Department paramedics pronounced Mazariegos dead at the scene.
According to witnesses, Mazariegos was standing outside his truck parked in the roadway on Oxford Street when an unknown suspect shot him. The suspect then got into the vehicle described as a white, Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon and fled southbound on Oxford, investigators said.
Surveillance video showed the wanted vehicle had a sticker with the letters “SLP,” possibly for San Luis Potosi, on the driver’s side rear window.
Further investigation reportedly identified Fortiz as the suspect in the shooting. HPD said on Tuesday, the suspect was arrested on an unrelated felony charge in the Eagle Pass area in Maverick County, Texas without incident.