Texas teenager is shot dead in confrontation over fireworks

AUSTIN, Texas — In the earliest hours of the Fourth of July, Austin police received a 911 call about an escalating argument on the southeast side of the Texas city. A man was pointing a gun at the head of another man in the parking lot of an apartment complex, the caller said.

Jason Roche, 41, was apparently upset that 19-year-old Devonte Ortiz was setting off fireworks with his friends at their apartment complex, according to a copy of an arrest affidavit provided to the Washington Post.

By the time police arrived around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, it was too late: Ortiz had been shot, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Roche told police he had asked Ortiz and his friends to stop shooting off fireworks earlier that night, the affidavit stated. In videos of the incident, Roche “is observed displaying a firearm at Ortiz, reholstering the firearm then displaying the firearm multiple times,” the affidavit stated. “The video depicts Roche following Ortiz around the car and they argue with each other.”

Roche’s father was also outside, police said, and attempted to intervene. Video footage showed Roche’s father and Ortiz “engage in a verbal altercation and mutual shoving of each other,” resulting in the elder Roche falling to the ground, the affidavit stated. It was then that Roche shot Ortiz, police said. Ortiz was not armed when he was shot and was “moving away from the firearm and not lunging toward it as stated by Roche,” the affidavit stated.

The younger Roche was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree murder, police said. He is being held at the Travis County Jail on a $250,000 bond, records show.