Deputies: Jealousy fueled Manvel rampage

GALVESTON — A Manvel man fatally shot two members of his wife’s family and wounded his wife and sister-in-law before turning the gun on himself after learning that his spouse intended to leave him, a Brazoria County sheriff’s spokesman said Monday.

Deputies arrived at a mobile home at 255 Oak Shore Drive in Manvel shortly after 1:32 a.m. Sunday to find the man’s wife with a bullet wound to her abdomen and holding the couple’s infant girl, sheriff ’s spokesman Lt. Varon Snelgrove said. The child was unhurt.

Child placed with CPS

Authorities found the body of Muhammad Hasan Nawaskhan, 28, who police believe shot his wife, 36-yearold Maria Paredes-Paz, her two sisters and brother-in-law before taking his own life, Snelgrove said. Deputies also found a pistol they believed was used in the slayings.

Also killed in the rampage were his wife’s sister, Alexy R. Garcia, 49, and her husband, Carlos Antonio GarciaCerna, 30.

Another sister of Paredes-Paz, 31-year-old Lesly Paredes, was taken to Memorial Herman-Texas Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the face. Paredes was in stable but critical condition Monday and was expected to be in the hospital for several days, Snelgrove said.

Paredes-Paz’s stomach wound was not life-threatening, and she was released from Ben Taub Hospital. Her daughter, who Snelgrove said is less than a year old, was placed in the care of Texas Child Protective Services.

“Her mother is currently not of sound condition to make the decision of placement,” he said.

One of several 911 calls was from Nawaskhan, speaking Spanish, who said he had shot his wife, Snelgrove said.

Nawaskhan and Paredes-Paz lived in a gated, middle-income mobile home community that Snelgrove described as well kept.

”We don’t get a whole lot of calls in the neighborhood,” he said.

Parades-Paz’s two sisters and brother-and-law appeared to have come to the mobile home to help paint it, he said.

First call to home

Investigators discovered that Nawaskhan’s wife was in the process of leaving him and that he had financial problems.

“This, along with finances, is believed to have been what sparked an argument the morning of the incident,” Snelgrove said.

Snelgrove said deputies had never been called to the home before the shooting.

“We had never dealt with any of these individuals before,” he said.

Investigators were still checking the backgrounds of the victims and Nawaskhan, but as of Monday they hadn’t found that he had any other criminal convictions, Snelgrove said.