Fifth suspect charged in fatal local shooting

Houston police say a fifth suspect has been arrested and charged in a fatal shooting outside a local shopping center in late March, according to the Houston Police Department.

Isaiah Medrano, 18, has been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Joel Villarreal according to Harris County court records. He was taken into custody by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force in Beaumont on May 11, according to HPD, and is currently being held in Hardin County Jail.

Four other men – 19-year-old Arnez Markel Semien, 17-year-old Jonathan Lopez, 19-year-old Andres Lara, and 20-year-old Daniel Medrano – have also been charged with capital murder in connection to the shooting, according to court records.

Officers responded to a shopping center in the 7000 block of Long Point Road just west of Delmar Stadium around 6:45 p.m. on March 28 to find Villarreal unresponsive on the ground and having been shot, according to HPD. He was later pronounced dead at an area hospital, according to the department.

A preliminary investigation indicated that several unknown suspects may have allegedly been involved in an alleged armed robbery at the shopping center, police said, and that Villarreal may have attempted to stop the alleged suspects from running away.

Lara and Daniel Medrano were arrested on April 6, according to police, while Semien and Lopez were arrested on April 27 and Isaiah Medrano is awaiting transport back to Harris County according to the department.