GROVES, Texas — The suspect in the shooting death of an 18-year-old Port Arthur man last weekend was identified to police by his own mother.
Groves Police arrested Vonzelle Dominique Hall, 19, of Port Arthur, on Wednesday, August 14, 2024 and charged him with the fatal shooting of Jesus Garcia, 18, of Port Arthur last Saturday.
Hall’s mother contacted police on Tuesday afternoon, August 13, 2024, telling them that she was certain that a photo from surveillance video released by police was her son, according to a probable cause affidavit in the case.
Hall is currently being held on a $600,000 bond in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility.
Early Saturday morning, August 10, just before 2 a.m., Groves Police received reports of a shooting at the Beverly Place Apartments in the 5300 block of Gulfway Dr.
Dispatchers told officers before they arrived that one person was on the ground and multiple others had left the area, according to the probable cause affidavit.
When officers got there, they found Garcia in the parking lot suffering from a gunshot wound to his “upper torso,” according to the affidavit.
He was taken to by ambulance to a Southeast Texas hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from a nearby apartment showed several men in the parking lot with at least three of them holding what appear to be guns, the affidavit said.
One armed man, wearing a camouflage hoodie and a cap can be seen in the video standing next to Garcia, who had a gun in his waistband, according to the affidavit.
Police noted, in the affidavit, that the two men appeared to be friends and that there appeared to be no argument between them based on their demeanor shown in the video.
The man in the camouflage hoodie is then seen distracting Garcia before putting a gun to his head.
In the video, Garcia immediately ducks and begins to run away as the man fires multiple shots at him until he can be seen collapsing in the parking lot.
Police also found more video that showed the shooting in more detail and released a photo of the suspect from it onto social media.
Not long after the photo was released, police were told by an anonymous tipster that the photo was of Hall. However, when police compared the surveillance image to photos of Hall they were still unsure if it was him.
Later, when Hall’s mother contacted police, she signed a sworn affidavit that the surveillance photo did show her son, Vonzelle Hall, according to the affidavit.
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