AUSTIN, Texas — Two men have been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting at a northeast Austin Waffle House in early June.
On June 8, Austin Police Department (APD) officers responded to a shooting call at the Waffle House located at 12304 Dessau Road just after 6 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a woman – later identified as 25-year-old Tykeisha Lewis – who appeared to have been shot.
Austin-Travis County EMS medics arrived and took Lewis to Dell Seton Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 8:21 a.m. A second woman who was also shot was also taken to a hospital with injuries.
On June 17, APD issued a call for the public's help in identifying four suspects in connection with the shooting. Police said the men, who were described as being between the ages of 16 and 20, were believed to have been arguing with a group the two victims were with before the shooting. Police said the suspects fled the scene in a black Dodge Durango after the two women were shot.
Now affidavits obtained by KVUE on July 8 reveal that two men, Irving Antunez-Sanchez and Emmanual Perez, have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting.
The documents state that a security guard at the Waffle House told police he saw a group of juveniles enter the restaurant between 5:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. He said the group was causing a disturbance, so he asked them to leave.
Once in the parking lot, the suspects allegedly began arguing with both victims and the two men they were with. The suspects were seen getting inside a black Durango, possibly a "HellCat" model, and driving through the parking lot. The security guard then went inside the Waffle House and, a few minutes later, heard multiple gunshots outside.
When the security guard went back outside, he saw the two women lying on the ground and said they appeared to have been shot. He also told police he saw the same four juvenile males standing near the Waffle House parking lot.
Surveillance footage viewed by police corroborated the security guard's account, according to the affidavits. The footage showed the four suspects arguing with the victims and the men they were with before being approached by the security guard. The four suspects then leave the camera's view.
"A few minutes pass when the victim and her group of friends are seen taking cover. At 5:59 a.m., the victim falls to the ground and it is apparent she has been shot," the affidavits read in part. "The suspects are not seen on the video during the shooting, and no vehicle is seen fleeing the parking lot because of the quality of the video and it being dark outside."
These events were also confirmed to police through an interview with the surviving victim, according to the affidavits.
The documents state that the same day of the Waffle House shooting, June 8, an APD detective informed the detectives investigating the Waffle House shooting that he had recovered a shell case fired at the Waffle House that matched one found in a drive-by shooting at a Jack-in-the-Box on East Braker Lane on March 17, where three victims were injured.
On June 17, the day APD released images of the potential suspects in the Waffle House shooting, a caller told police that he believed his brother – 18-year-old Irving Antunez-Sanchez – was one of the suspects pictured. Antunez-Sanchez's brother met with police and showed them Ring camera video that showed Antunez-Sanchez arriving home in the same outfit from the photo police shared.
Police were later able to use cellphone data to determine that Antunez-Sanchez's phone was at the Waffle House at the time of the shooting. Antunez-Sanchez was arrested on June 21 and charged with first-degree felony murder. He was booked on a $750,000 bond.
Meanwhile, following APD's release of the suspect photos, several other tipsters reported they believed another one of the suspects was 17-year-old Emmanual "Manny" Perez of Pflugerville, who reportedly drives a black "HellCat" Dodge Durango. Police were able to use cellphone data to determine that Perez's phone was also at the scene of the shooting at the Waffle House on June 8. Perez has also been charged with first-degree felony murder.
Anyone with any additional information about this incident is asked to call APD at 512-477-3588 or contact Capital Area Crime Stoppers anonymously online or by calling 512-472-8477.
This incident is being investigated as Austin's 25th homicide of 2024.