LEO investigating separate homicides in Dayton area
DAYTON - Two incidents Tuesday night have left officials with the Dayton Police Department and Liberty County Sheriff's Office busy investigating homicides.
The first incident took place around 8:20 pm when a shooting occurred off North Winfree and Pine Streets.
A call came in of a suspicious person who turned out to be a gunshot victim.
According to Chief Derek Woods, the victim, identified as Elmo Johnson, 38, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest after an altercation at a home on Pine Street.
A car with two white males and a white female arrived at the home; at some point, one male and the female exited the vehicle, which police are still working to identify.
An incident occurred between Johnson and the male suspect when the second male suspect exited the car and shot Johnson in the chest with a single gunshot wound.
The victim was life-flighted to Kingwood Hospital and later died.
Investigators are now following leads, trying to confirm the vehicle's make, and culling other leads, including cooperation from a witness accompanying Johnson at the time of the incident.
"We're following up on leads with suspects," said Woods.
Just after midnight, dispatchers with the LCSO received a call of multiple shots fired on a private road off FM 1413 in what Capt. David Meyers called a drive-by shooting.
"Upon deputies arriving to the residence, they noticed numerous bullet holes in vehicles and the house," said Meyers.
Meyers said there were four people in the home at the time of the shooting, three women were untouched during the incident, but an 18-year-old male was hit while in his bedroom sitting in a gaming chair.
"The bullet penetrated the front wall, went through the living room through the wall into the bedroom through the back of his gaming chair, and struck him in the back area," said Meyers.
When emergency medical officials arrived, they life-flighted the victim to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died around 2:30 am.
He has been identified as Gerardo Olivares-Mancha, a 2023 graduate of Dayton High School.
"He just graduated high school, so it's a very tragic situation here," said Meyers.
Authorities wrapped up their on-site investigation around 9 am Wednesday and were now moving on to finding possible video footage and other evidence to identify a suspect.
"The only suspect information we have right now is possibly a light-colored truck observed leaving the area shortly after or right after the shots were fired," said Meyers.
There does not appear to be any evidence linking the two incidents, but authorities were checking into all leads.