Authorities: Gang violence culminates in fatal shooting

Anyone with information about this case is urged to call the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office at (956) 668-8477.

EDINBURG — A gang skirmish that began with graffiti culminated in a street battle in the southeast Edinburg area Thursday night.

One man was killed and a woman was shot in the arm during the late-night violence, authorities said.

Investigators believe four drive-by shootings occurred after members of the Sureños gang tagged an Edinburg High School building, "defacing and insulting" members of the Texas Chicano Brotherhood, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

Attorney Jacques Treviño, counsel for the Edinburg school district, said school officials had found the graffiti sometime last week. Someone apparently broke into a room with art supplies and stole an airbrush which was then used in the tagging. The attorney was unaware of any connection between the graffiti and the slaying.

About 8:35 p.m. Thursday, sheriff’s deputies responded to a drive-by shooting just outside Edinburg on Lopez Drive in which members of the Sureños gang fired rounds at members of the rival gang.

"Nobody got hit, but they were shot at," Sheriff Treviño said.

An hour later, the mother of a Texas Chicano Brotherhood member was shot in the upper left arm during a drive-by shooting at her house on the 2100 block of Cypress Avenue. Edinburg Police Chief Quirino Muñoz said the 35 year-old victim told police she was standing in her front yard when occupants of a red passenger vehicle driving by fired toward her.

The woman was coherent when police arrived and was rushed to an area hospital, Muñoz said. She was unable to provide a description of the vehicle’s passengers but told police she heard several male voices coming from the vehicle.

Officers scoured the property and retrieved several ammunition casings littering the street, the chief said. Investigators also examined bullet holes in a fence surrounding the residence. Half an hour later, the Sureños struck again about four miles away on Rattlesnake Drive.

Shortly after midnight Thursday, a group of Texas Chicano Brotherhood members retaliated against the rival gang and a final shooting resulted in the death of 18-year-old Joshua Mora Vega, Sheriff Treviño said. Vega, who was found on the ground on the 3000 block of Slaughter Drive, had what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound to the back of his head.

Investigators with the sheriff’s office’s gang unit believe Vega was not a member of the Sureños and may have been an unintended victim in the crime.

"He is not a full-blown member," Sheriff Treviño said. "But he does hang around with them."

Vega had an arrest history with the sheriff’s office, facing charges of drug possession and theft.

"He is no stranger to the system," the sheriff said.

Vega's slaying is the 19th new homicide case the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office has investigated this year. Before Thursday’s incident, the agency’s most recent homicide investigation was launched last month when an Alamo man confessed to authorities that he killed his wife in May and buried her body in the family’s back yard.