Houston Manhunt For Serial Killer Suspect Jose Gilberto Rodriguez Continues In Wake Of Homicidal Crime Spree
According to CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV, the Houston manhunt continues for spree killer suspect Jose Gilberto Rodriguez. Rodriguez is wanted in connection with at least five crimes including an armed home invasion and four shootings, three ending in deaths of the victims, over the past eight days.
Officers believe Rodriguez first attacked someone during a home invasion and robbery in the 12000 block of Foxboro on Monday, July 9.
Pamela Johnson, 62, was found dead inside her Cypress home on Bent Pine Drive on the evening of Friday, July 13, after her family became concerned she had not been heard from. Items were missing from the home, as was the widow’s PT cruiser, which authorities say was later spotted being driven by an unidentified male.
On Saturday, July 14, the stolen vehicle was found abandoned in the parking lot of Willowbrook Mall. Mall surveillance video showed a man, believed to be Rodriguez, walking through and leaving from the opposite side. Police say other vehicles used in the crime spree have also been dumped at the mall.
Later on Saturday, a store manager found the body of Allie Barrow hidden between two mattresses at the Mattress Firm on FM-1960. In the early morning hours of Monday, July 16, a 22-year-old METROLift driver who had stopped at a Shell service station at Quitman Street near the Eastex Freeway for coffee was shot and critically wounded.
Later on Monday Edward Magana was found shot to death at a Mattress One store along the North Freeway near Crosstimbers, only three miles away from the first mattress store.
Police Chief Art Acevedo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez held a joint news conference Monday evening linking the killings to 46-year-old parolee Rodriguez, who had been released last September and is believed to have cut off his ankle bracelet.
Watch @houstonpolice's broadcast: Chief @artacevedo & @SheriffEd_HCSO hold media briefing on individual possibly ti… https://t.co/oK0o4kuJR5
— Steve Jackson Top 1% Of Influential People Network (@SteveJacksonVA) July 16, 2018
Investigators believe Rodriguez may now be driving a dark grey Nissan Sentra taken from the scene of the second mattress store murder, with the license plate number KPD2805.
According to the Houston Chronicle, “We need to find this vehicle,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said while noting that Rodriguez has the “propensity to change vehicles often.”
Gonzalez, asked by a reporter if Rodriguez is considered a serial killer, responded with the following.
“Yes, that’s what we’re facing.”
According to ABC 13 Eyewitness News, Rodriguez is a registered sex offender with convictions for burglary, attempted aggravated sex abuse, auto theft, and criminal trespassing.
