In the early morning hours of April 29, 2022, the life of 32-year-old Able Garcia Jr., a male from Houston, was violently cut short in a barrage of gunfire. The fatal shooting occurred around 12:45 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 500 block of West LaGrange Street in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Inside the apartment, responding officers discovered the bodies of Garcia and another man, 36-year-old Pedro Oswaldo Duarte Rangel, who was also from Houston.
Both men had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
The investigation into the double homicide led detectives on a painstaking journey through hours of video surveillance and numerous statements. It was revealed that Garcia and Rangel had temporarily relocated to Lake Charles from Houston approximately six months before the deadly encounter. The key to unraveling the case lay in the connection between the victims and their assailants, who were all acquainted from their time in Houston.
Investigators determined that the motive behind the killings was drug-related. Three suspects, also from the Houston area, were identified as having traveled to Lake Charles with the specific intent to commit the murders. After carrying out the act, they immediately fled back to Texas. In a coordinated effort with the Houston Police Department, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Marshals, and ICE, Lake Charles detectives and SWAT members traveled to Houston to execute arrest warrants.
On July 6, 2022, the three suspects were apprehended at different locations in and around Houston. Miguel Angel Perez Cervantes, 33, was arrested at a sports bar. Pedro Ramiro Reyes Valdez, 24, was taken into custody at a job site in League City, Texas. The third suspect, 53-year-old Juan Antonio Vasquez Flores, was apprehended at a residence in Houston. All three were transported to the Harris County Joint Processing Center to await extradition to Lake Charles. Cervantes and Valdez were charged with first-degree murder, while Flores faced a charge of criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
