MANHUNT: Previously Deported MS-13 Gang Member Allegedly Murdered Girlfriend

HOUSTON, Texas — Law enforcement officials in the Houston area are searching for a previously deported MS-13 gang member wanted in connection with the murder of his female companion. The murder victim is also the mother of the suspect’s child.

The suspect, 26-year-old Carlos Gonzalez, bragged about killing people and being a member of the hyper-violent MS-13 gang. Just two weeks earlier, the girlfriend’s sister saw the man “playing” with or “handling” an assault rifle that she said she thought was an AR-15, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas. The preliminary autopsy report indicates she died from a  wound to the head consistent with a rifle round.

Law enforcement officials stated that Gonzalez had been deported in the past. The victim’s mother said he was from El Salvador. El Salvador is the home of the MS-13 transnational criminal gang.

Maritza Blanca Lopez sustained a shot to her left front forehead near the hairline.

“The amount of extensive damage it caused to the skull, and the trail of fragments and jacketing in the skull was consistent with a rifle round,” reported the doctor who performed the autopsy at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston.

Law enforcement officials discovered Lopez’ partially nude body after dispatchers received a 911 call from an unknown male “who stated that his girlfriend was either playing with a gun or checking the gun and accidentally shot herself.” The man immediately hung up the phone.

Harris County Dispatch called the phone number back, and the unknown caller said he did not know the exact address but gave them an intersection in northwest Harris County. He also said he left to take his baby to the hospital but then decided to take the child to his aunt’s house. He hung up the phone and did not subsequently answer the phone or call authorities back.

Patrol deputies went to the scene and found a residence with the door unlocked. A deputy found an adult Hispanic female in the closet of the bedroom. She was wearing only panties and a bra. Blood and brain matter was splattered on hanging clothes, and the walls and the fuse box in the closet. No weapon, spent-casing, or projectile was found in the closet according to court documents.

After an investigation, officials determined that Lopez and Gonzalez were the listed residents on the apartment. A neighbor told officers that she heard yelling and screaming from two voices in the apartment and then a “loud boom.”

The murdered woman’s mother, Blanca Garcia said Maritza Lopez was involved in a domestic disturbance with her daughter the previous night and has been violent towards Lopez in the past. She said Gonzalez is the father of her granddaughter and an MS-13 gang member.

Investigators found bloody footprints on the floors and a balled-up men’s collared shirt on the floor with a lot of blood stains on it.

Lopez first started dating Gonzalez when she was 14-years-old said her sister, Jessica Lopez. She also told officials that the family had encouraged her sister to leave Gonzalez.

The dead woman’s sister said her sister told her that the couple had a fight and she had kicked out Gonzalez and was planning to leave the apartment. She decided to stay.

Anyone with information about the 5’10” 170 lb. Gonzalez should call Crime Stoppers Houston at 713-222-TIPS. Officials issued a warrant, but Gonzalez has not been arrested. There is a $200,000 bond.

Court records obtained from the Harris County District Clerk’s Officer revealed Gonzalez has a 2010 felony conviction in Harris County for burglary of a habitation. He also has two pending felony charges for endangering a child from June 3.

Sheriff’s Office offials and officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Gonzalez has not been in custody since his release from prison on the burglary charge.

In March, two MS-13 gang members appeared in a Harris County courtroom laughing and waving at news cameras after being charged with the kidnapping and rape of one 14-year-old girl, and the kidnapping, rape, and murder of another young girl in Jersey Village – a city within the Houston metropolitan area. The murdered girl was allegedly killed as part of a satanic ritual.

Last Tuesday, William F. Sweeney, Jr., the assistant director in charge of the FBI in New York told the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, “MS-13 is not the largest street gang in the United States; it is increasingly the most violent and well-organized,” reported Breitbart Texas.

The FBI assistant director added that MS-13 members are “typically much younger than those connected to other street gangs.” They take “cues from the gang instead of relying on a productive family structure. Also, those emigrating from El Salvador to the United States are known to be exposed and desensitized to extreme violence at an early age.” MS-13 members frequently recruit children who are illegal immigrants.

Breitbart Texas reported that the State of Texas considers the MS-13 gang to be a Tier 1 level or the “most significant” threat level. The rise of horrific violence from the gang based in El Salvador and Honduras has also decidedly affected crime levels in the fourth-largest city in the United States. Houston is one of the five cities that the FBI has identified to have a large MS-13 presence. Despite the threat of MS-13 in Houston and Dallas, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings have joined other Democrat mayors in Texas in trying to get the law blocked.

Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump told the crowd gathered in Iowa that MS-13 was like al-Qaida and stressed again his commitment to building a border wall, reported The Daily Caller.

In late April Breitbart News reported that President Trump tweeted, “The Democrats don’t want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.