Giovanni Ornelas is accused of the murder of soldier Albert Castillo Jr. (PHOTOS)

Giovanni Ornelas was arrested as the alleged murderer of an Air Force soldier.

Alberto Castillo Jr. was shot dead in front of his parents’ house in Texas.

The victim had two weeks’ leave from the Armed Forces when he was killed.

Giovanni Matt Ornelas was arrested and accused of having shot another Hispanic to death and of having left one more person wounded. The Homicide Division of the Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested Ornelas, who was wanted for the murder of the young hispanic Alberto Castillo Jr.

The defendant Giovanni Matt Ornelas, 31, is already being held in the county jail and will face his trial before Judge Nikita Harmon, of the 176th Criminal District Court in Harris County. The Texas State Penal Code states that the crime of homicide like the one Ornelas committed is punishable by a penalty of 20 to 99 years in prison.

Giovanni Ornelas is charged with the murder of a Hispanic soldier

Giovanni Matt Ornelas is charged with the murder of Hispanic soldier Albert Castillo Jr., who was shot dead in Texas. (PHOTO: Houston Police Department)

It is not the first time that Giovanni Matt Ornelas has faced problems with the law, because according to the criminal records of Harris County, consulted by MundoHispánico In Texas, the man has been arrested on previous occasions for drug possession and illegal possession of weapons.

To arrest Giovanni Matt Ornelas, the Homicide Division agents requested the support of their colleagues from the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), since during the investigation of the case detectives discovered that the man it could be armed and it was dangerous.

Albert Castillo Jr. was in the Air Force

Albert Castillo Jr. was attached to the United States Air Force at a base in Omaha, Nebraska, and when he was killed he had gone to visit his family in Texas. (PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico)

The young Albert Castillo Jr., 22, was in the United States Air Force at the Offutt Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and last Sunday, August 8, 2021, the boy was in Houston, enjoying two weeks of leave. and in which he decided to travel to Texas to visit his family.

At 7:00 p.m. that Sunday, young Albert Castillo Jr. was outside his father Albert Castillo’s home, located at 5612 Newport Street, in the populous Hispanic neighborhood of Lawndale / Wayside in the southeast of the Houston metropolitan area, known as the East End, one of the nerve centers of Hispanic culture in the Space City.

Father and son are killed by bullets from an AR-15

Albert Castillo Jr. was shot dead by an AR-15 rifle carried by Giovanni Matt Ornelas, who acted accompanied by two other accomplices who are still fugitives. (PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico)

Albert Castillo and his son Albert Castillo Jr. were outside their home when a car suddenly passed by and from which, at low speed, a round of shots was fired at them with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. The shooting happened in seconds and as father and son fell injured on the street, the car sped away.

The shooting alerted neighbors and friends of the Castillo family, who came out to see what had happened and found the two men lying in the street and badly injured. It is not known with certainty who of the neighbors called the HPD emergency number to report the incident.

Albert Castillo Jr. died at the scene of the shooting

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

The first HPD patrol cars that arrived at the crime street requested the presence of the paramedics of the Houston Fire Department (HFD, for its acronym in English), to treat son Albert Castillo Jr. and his father Albert Castillo for their injuries from the gunshots.

However, when HFD paramedics arrived at the crime scene, they could no longer do anything to help Albert Castillo Jr., and he was pronounced dead at the scene from gunshots to the torso. His father Albert Castillo was transferred to a hospital in the area with gunshots in the arm, but in stable condition.

Various witnesses help the authorities

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

When the murder of Albert Castillo Jr. was confirmed, the case was taken up by agents of the HPD Homicide Division, who arrived at the crime scene that was quickly filled with grieving neighbors and relatives. Some neighbors agreed to speak to detectives and that was crucial in identifying and arresting Giovanni Matt Ornelas.

Neighbors’ testimonies revealed to them that the killer was armed with an AR-15 rifle and was speeding east on Newport Drive, then onto I-45 north. Those details were the first clue authorities had to identify Giovanni Matt Ornelas.

The description that led to the arrest of Giovanni Ornelas

PHOTO: Taken from Twitter

Other witnesses told HPD Homicide Division officers that the shooter was a light-skinned Hispanic man with a lean but muscular build, with close-cropped and nearly shaved hair, and a stubble that had been only a few days old. Another key clue the officers heard was that the alleged killer had a tattooed left arm.

The details of the escape route of Giovanni Matt Ornelas allowed HPD Homicide Division agents to obtain video camera images of the businesses the fugitive passed by, after allegedly committing the murder. Those images were the first clue to identify the Castillo’s shooter.

Who are the other two accomplices of the murderer?

PHOTO: Special for MundoHispánico

Thanks to these images, HPD Homicide Division agents now know that two other Hispanic men were with Giovanni Matt Ornelas, although, as of this writing, investigators do not know their identities. The motive for the murder of Albert Castillo Jr. is not recorded in the case documents.

Now the agents of the HPD Homicide Division ask that if anyone knows the identity of those other two accomplices of Giovanni Matt Ornelas, they contact his office at 713.308.3600 or the non-profit organization Houston Crime Stoppers at 713.222.8477. All tracks will be kept anonymous.

Giovanni Ornelas has a criminal record for various crimes

PHOTO: Harris County

Last Thursday, August 19, 2021, agents from the Homicide Division and SWAT broke into the home of Giovanni Matt Ornelas, in southwest Houston and detained him without incident. The man remains in the Harris County Jail, awaiting his first hearing with the judge.

The first time that Giovanni Matt Ornelas was arrested was on January 12, 2008, charged with possession of drugs. His second arrest occurred on March 5 of that same year, for illegally carrying a firearm. On April 4, 2015, he had his third arrest again for possession of marijuana, an amount less than two ounces, and spent six days in detention.

Albert Castillo Jr., one more victim of firearms

PHOTO: Houston Police Department

The murder of Albert Castillo Jr. is one more link in the violence with firearms. The non-profit organization National Archive of Gun Violence, which fights to raise awareness about the dangers of free sale of firearms, reports that 28,682 people have died so far this year.

As of Sunday, August 22, 2o21 of those people who have been shot dead in the United States, a total of 13,172 were murdered and 15,510 committed suicide. 26,375 were injured. The country has already experienced 450 mass shootings in the first half of the year, where at least four people died in the same event.

In Texas the carrying of weapons will no longer have restrictions

PHOTO: Houston Police Department

Particularly in Texas, gun violence could worsen as of next Wednesday, September 1, 2021, as the governor Greg abbott He promoted a law that allows the purchase of arms in the state and the free and visible carriage without restrictions.

The law that Governor Greg Abbott passed is called Reform in the Texas Congress 1927 and which has many law enforcement agencies in the state very concerned, since as of that Wednesday any person without training and without a license can buy and carry a weapon in public and in full view of others.