Details are beginning to emerge in the high-profile murder of a man in the Southlake Town Square on May 22. At an afternoon press conference on May 23, Southlake chief of police Steve Mylett revealed the victim had ties to a Mexican drug cartel.
Juan Jesus Guerrero-Chapa, 43, was gunned down after an evening of shopping with his wife. At 6:45 pm, he was shot multiple times while in the passenger seat of his Range Rover. The suspect fled in a white SUV.
"Our officers arrived on scene within seconds," Mylett said.
Guerrero-Chapa's wife, who was unharmed, was loading packages into the vehicle at the time of the murder. The couple had lived in a gated Southlake community for about two years with their three children.
An affluent suburb in Tarrant County, Southlake is highly regarded for its quality of life and safety. The last murder in Southlake was more than a decade ago. The town square opened in 1999 and is a popular family hangout consisting of upscale shops and restaurants as well as a library and a post office.
The town square was crowded at the time of the shooting, and witnesses have described the shooter as a Hispanic male between 5-foot-7-inches and 5-foot-10-inches. His face was partially covered with a cloth. NBC-DFW reports that Guerrero-Chapa previously served as an attorney for the Gulf Cartel, a notorious Mexican drug organization.
Southlake police have requested assistance from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department, ATF, FBI, DEA and Department of Homeland Security, and all have agreed to help the investigation.
"We are in the infant stages of this investigation," Mylett said. "Obviously this was a well-orchestrated, deliberate act involving a specific target."
Anyone with information about the crime should contact Southlake Police detective Karl Moore at 817-748-8127 or Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at 817-469-8477.
Southlake police suspect the murder is related to a Mexican drug cartel.
