Suspect may have used government gun
Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz is accused of killing four women in Texas
LAREDO, Texas – Juan David Ortiz, a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of murdering four women in the area last month, probably used his governmentissued, semiautomatic weapon to carry out the killings, according to law enforcement officials.
Police found .40-caliber casings at the scene of each of the murders, consistent with the agency-issued .40-caliber HK P2000 semiautomatic pistol found in Ortiz’s truck when he was arrested Sept. 15, said Isidro Alaniz, district attorney for Webb and Zapata Counties, in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY.
The handgun and casings, as well as one projectile found at the scene of the last attack, were being examined at the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime lab in Laredo to establish a precise match, he said.
Ortiz, 35, was arrested after a woman fled from his truck and alerted police. He was charged with four counts of murder and held at the Webb County Jail on $2.5 million bond.
Officials described him as a “serial” killer.
“Certainly, right now, circumstantially, everything matches up,” Alaniz said of the murder weapon. “The scientific evidence will confirm what we believe to be true: that they came from the HK.”
Authorities alleged that Ortiz picked up the four women – Melissa Ramirez, 29; Claudine Ann Luera, 42; Griselda Alicia Hernandez, 35; and Nikki Enriquez, 28 – from Sept. 3 to 14, drove them to remote locations around Webb County and killed them each with gunshots to the head. All the women were sex workers who congregated around a street in Laredo known for sex and drug trade.
Ortiz was arrested hiding in the parking lot of a Laredo hotel and confessed to the murders, police said.
Investigators suspect he used his position as an intelligence supervisor in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Laredo Sector to monitor the murder investigation as it circled in on him and stay ahead of detectives.
Webb County Sheriff ’s investigators often share information about murders with other agencies active in the area, such as the DPS and Border Patrol – information that probably crossed Ortiz’s desk, Webb County Sheriff Chief Federico Garza said.
After Ramirez’s murder Sept. 3, investigators wrongly looked for a black truck or black Cadillac in connection with the killing, a misstep Ortiz probably followed closely, Garza said. Ortiz drove a white Dodge Ram truck.
“We strongly do believe that Ortiz was ahead of us because of the information that we were providing,” Garza said. “He knew what we were looking for. He knew that we were off him and looking in other areas. He knew all these things.”
The revelations of the weapon probably used in the shootings and Ortiz’s use of his position as intel supervisor run counter to statements by CBP officials that denied the suspect used agency resources to allegedly commit the crimes.
“At this time, we have no reason to believe that the alleged perpetrator was acting in any official capacity or was on duty at the time of the crimes,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan wrote last month to members of Congress.
Garza and other law enforcement officials stressed that Ortiz’s arrest shouldn’t cloud the agency’s important work along the border.
“This matter we speak of doesn’t reflect on any of the hardworking men and women of Border Patrol, sheriff ’s office, police department, federal agencies – all of us,” he said.
However, the attack will probably leave a stain on law enforcement, Garza said.
“We’re here to serve and protect our community,” he said. “When something like this happens, it’s a black eye on all of us.”