HOUSTON – The suspect in a deadly road rage shooting on Houston’s Southwest Freeway appeared in court Thursday.
Oscar Vasquez-Guzman is charged with murder in the death of 19-year-old Otarion Lomax.
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The shooting happened on Jan. 26 in the 7600 block of the Southwest Freeway. HPD patrol officers and homicide detectives responded to an emergency call regarding three shooting victims who had been transported by a private vehicle to a hospital at about 12:30 a.m.
When officers arrived at the hospital, they found out that Lomax sustained a life-threatening gunshot wound. Doctors pronounced him dead on Saturday, Jan. 27. HPD said two women, 18 and 19, were shot in the leg and were treated and released.
“Road rage is something we are going to prosecute, we are going to take it very seriously,” said Hunter Brown, Assistant District Attorney with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
During Guzman’s court appearance, the state had asked for a $300,000 bond, but the judge sided with the defense and gave Guzman a $100,000 bond.
Brown said historically, road rage cases have been difficult to prosecute.
“In the past, I think it was something that has been sort of hard to prove and hard to prosecute purely by the nature of it being a moving crime scene,” he said. “This case I think is important because officers were able to use some inventive tools I think, license plate readers to develop a suspect vehicle and trace it back to the defendant. So we have tools that we are using these days to fight back against road rage.”
Brown said cell phone video given to investigators by a passenger of the vehicle that was fired upon also helped them identify the suspect vehicle.
Brown spoke about what led up to the shooting. He said the four teenagers inside the car had just left a party and were headed home when the shooting happened.
“I know there was some sort of interaction between the two involving tailgating by the defendant, I don’t know what happened from that point exactly step by step, but I do know there was some amount of trying to keep up with each other and not being forgiving on the road,” Brown said.
Along with the $100,000 bond, Guzman also has an immigration hold with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If he is able to post bond, he will be transferred to ICE custody for which there is no bond, Brown said.