MCALLEN, Texas — Authorities in a South Texas border town are looking into a home invasion gone wrong, during which a shootout left one dead and one or more injured.
Alton police initially learned of the shooting on Sunday morning when the owner of a rental home reported it, Police Chief Enrique Sotelo told Breitbart Texas.
The shooting may have taken place either Saturday or Sunday when two or three men went to a home near the intersection of Bryan Road and Kantunil Avenue. A struggle then ensued with the people inside the home where two suspects ended up getting shot, Sotelo said.
Sotelo said, “One of the men died at a local hospital while the other survived but remains in serious condition.”
Because the shooting was not reported by the victims by the time investigators arrived to the property evidence from the case was likely missing, the chief said.
While many times home invasions are tied to drug activity, in this case, authorities weren’t able to find evidence of it; they have not been able to find the people that had been renting the house and fought off the suspected robbers, Sotelo said.
“This is a very young investigation,” he said. “We are still working on finding certain details in the case. We have some things working against us because the case went unreported but we are working several leads.”
Alton is just a few miles north from the Texas border and its rural areas have been used by both drug and human smugglers to hide their contraband in stash houses.
Despite their high volume of activity which keeps authorities rather busy, the city has seen a low number of violent crimes. On November 26, the city saw its only murder when a group of men shot 31 year old Jose Luis Gonzales at a gas station in a failed effort to kidnap a group of immigrants that he kept in a stash house.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter @ildefonsoortiz.