On the evening of August 4, 2025, Justin Rodriguez, age 33, was at his girlfriend's apartment at the St. Mary's Apartments on the 200 block of North Mier Street in San Diego, Texas, when a confrontation spilled up to a window and a shot pierced the glass. The bullet struck Justin Rodriguez, a 33-year-old man, in the clavicle/right shoulder; he collapsed inside as first responders arrived, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators later recovered a. 40-caliber pistol at another residence as part of the early evidence sweep, and they marked the case as the small town's first homicide in six years.
Police Chief Ben Gomez said officers were dispatched just before 7 p.m., and by the next morning the department publicly identified the victim as Justin Rodriguez, 33, of Freer. The scene at St. Mary's Apartments remained cordoned while Texas Rangers joined local officers to canvass for witnesses and collect physical evidence tied to the shot fired through the apartment window. The early timeline that emerged described friends of the girlfriend arriving to confront Justin Rodriguez, 33, which escalated into the fatal shooting.
An arrest followed quickly. On August 5, authorities located and arrested 17-year-old Zan Gonzalez in Jackson County, north of Victoria. He was charged with the murder of Justin Rodriguez, 33, and was expected to be transferred to the Duval County Jail as multiple agencies—including the Texas Rangers, DPS, San Diego and Alice police, and the Duval County Sheriff's Office—continued the investigation. Officials emphasized that the shooter had initially fled but was in custody within a day of the killing.
Public records and memorial listings fixed the essentials of the loss: Justin Rodriguez, age 33, died of gun violence on August 4, 2025, in San Diego, Texas, and loved ones soon gathered to mourn him, with obituary notices posted by Garza Funeral Home and memorial pages confirming the date and place. Those remembrances, alongside law-enforcement statements, charted a brief, violent encounter that ended in a young man's death and a teenager facing a murder charge.
