AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department (APD) made an arrest in connection to a homicide that happened in southeast Austin Sunday evening.
According to police, APD received a call that an incident occurred in the 2500 block of Teri Road just before 6 p.m. APD arrived on the scene and located a Hispanic man, identified as 25-year-old Steve Gonzalez, suffering from gunshot wounds.
APD, the Austin Fire Department (AFD) and Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) attempted life-saving measures on Gonzalez, but he was pronounced dead at around 6:45 p.m.
According to an affidavit from Travis County, an altercation began when another man at the residence accused Gonzalez of cheating at a poker game. Gonzalez then insulted the man and his family.
Gonzalez and the man began arguing before Gonzalez allegedly punched him in the face. A man, later identified as Martin Tovar, and another man tried to separate the two, at which point Gonzalez struck the other man with a chair.
Gonzalez then walked away from the residence while threatening that he would return. Tovar then walked to his green GMC Sierra truck, pulled out a handgun and fired into the ground three times, according to the affidavit.
Gonzalez then walked back towards the residence. Witnesses said they believed he had a handgun as he kept reaching toward his waistband area. The witnesses retreated to the house, where the caller said she heard three more gunshots, and then three more after that while she was following her child who ran outside. The caller then said she saw Gonzalez lying on the ground and Tovar getting into his truck.
The affidavit says the caller claims she saw Tovar in possession of a gun that Gonzalez had sold him that morning.
A juvenile witness told police that she did not see the physical altercation involving Gonzalez, but that she did see Martinez run towards a stop sign near the residence. She then said she heard screaming from the garage, and subsequently saw Tovar shoot Gonzalez three times in the chest.
Police arrested Tovar shortly after the incident. According to the affidavit, Tovar already had an active warrant for aggravated assault.
Tovar told police that he was invited to the residence by the man Gonzalez later hit with the chair. He recounted the altercation that led up to the shooting, claiming that Gonzalez pointed a handgun at the man was arguing with. Tovar claimed he attempted to reach for the handgun and grabbed Gonzalez's hands, but didn't know how the gun fired three times.
Tovar then said he left the scene after Gonzalez fell to the ground, and that the handgun Gonzalez had was still at the scene. According to police, there was no handgun found at the scene and none of the witnesses said they saw Gonzalez with a handgun.
Tovar has been charged with first-degree murder. This is being investigated as Austin's 43rd homicide of 2024.