Teen shot dead after dispute over fireworks
19-year-old shot dead in dispute with neighbor on Fourth of July.
A 41-year-old man has been charged with murdering Devonte Ortiz, 19, in the parking lot of his Southeast Austin apartment.
What began as an all-too-common dispute between neighbors over setting off Fourth of July fireworks led to the death of a teenager and a 41-year-old man being charged with murder, Austin police said Friday.
Devonte Ortiz, 19, a former Travis High School football player, was fatally shot in the parking lot of his Southeast Austin apartment complex early Wednesday. One of his neighbors, Jason Roche, brought a gun to confront Ortiz and his friends who were shooting off fireworks, police allege in court documents.
Roche told police he had warned the group to stop shooting the fireworks once, and when he came outside a second time, Roche said he saw Ortiz reach for a gun and shot him in self-defense, an arrest affidavit said.
But police say cellphone video provided by two witnesses contradicts Roche’s account of what happened.
Instead, Ortiz was moving away from the firearm and not toward it, the affidavit said.
Police responded at 1:26 a.m. Wednesday to reports of a shooting at the Pleasant Hills Apartments on Anken Drive near South Pleasant Valley Road.
When officers arrived, they
found Ortiz with a gunshot wound, police said. Medics took him to Dell Seton Medical Center, where he died from his injuries within an hour, authorities said.
Police said in court documents they found two weapons in the parking lot where the shooting occurred — a handgun that Roche said belonged to him and an AR-15 rifle on the ground next to a vehicle.
Court documents said the phone video showed Roche brandishing a gun several times as he argued with Ortiz. At one point, Roche’s father intervened and started arguing with Ortiz and the two began shoving each other, the affidavit said.
The video showed Ortiz pushing Roche’s father to the ground, at which point Roche pulled out his gun and shot Ortiz, according to the affidavit. Ortiz was not holding a weapon at the time of the shooting, police said in the affidavit.
Roche was booked Friday morning into the Travis County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder and is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail, records show.
On Friday afternoon, about two dozen of Ortiz’s family and friends gathered at the Pleasant Hills apartment complex to lay candles and balloons at the spot in the parking lot where Ortiz was fatally shot.
His mother, Kristina Ortiz, shed tears, while his grandmother, Paula Watrous, addressed the media.
“We are in a time of deep mourning,” Watrous said. “(Ortiz) was very much loved in this community, in these housing projects, by the schools, everywhere, all across East Austin . ... We want his story to be told.”
Ortiz graduated from Travis High School in 2017 and was on the A/B honor roll, his family said. He went to Blinn College for a few semesters before returning home to be with his family, they said.
Watrous said he was ambi- tious and athletic and wanted to be a coach and teacher.
“Devonte has never been in trouble, never been the type of child that was confrontational. He was a normal kid with a bright future ahead, and it all ended in a senseless tragedy,” said Tontanisha Freeman, a close family friend. “Anything he did, he did with his whole heart.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to raise money for the family and funeral expenses.