KCK mass shooting suspect may have evaded Dallas police by minutes: federal charges
Hours after an October mass shooting in Kansas City, Kansas, one of the suspects, Hugo Villanueva-Morales, may have escaped arrest in Dallas by 15 minutes, according to court documents.
Two months later, he was still on the run.
That was until Wednesday, when Villanueva-Morales was arrested by the Michoacán State Police in southwest Mexico, police in Kansas City, Kansas, announced Thursday.
Villanueva-Morales, 29, and a second suspect, Javier Alatorre, 23, have each been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the Oct. 6 shooting at the Tequila KC Bar that left four people dead and five others wounded. Those killed in the shooting were Everardo Meza, 29; Alfredo Calderon Jr, 29; Francisco Garcia Anaya, 34; and Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58.
The killing made national news and shocked the community around the neighborhood bar. Many were left with questions after Alatorre was quickly arrested but Villanueva-Morales vanished from public view.
Meanwhile, federal law enforcement, suspecting Villanueva-Morales fled the state, joined the search.
A bus to Dallas
After the shooting, the FBI was called to help scour social media accounts for information about the suspects.
Emergency disclosures were requested for Facebook and a communications company to quickly provide records based on multiple factors, including fear that the suspects would retaliate against witnesses they knew.
As officers interviewed witnesses, they learned Villanueva-Morales, also known as “Smokey,” was likely to leave the area and take a bus to Mexico, according to federal court documents charging him with fleeing prosecution.
A review of Facebook’s records led investigators to a phone number tied to Villanueva-Morales, the records show. A device associated with that number had been turned off, but investigators later received information that the device was near Denton, Texas, a city within the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, along the Interstate 35 corridor.
Agents found a Greyhound bus route that left Kansas City heading for Dallas hours after the 1:24 a.m shooting. Route 7321 departed Kansas City shortly after 8 a.m. and was to arrive at 8:40 p.m.
The FBI in Kansas City asked the Dallas Police Department to intercept the bus, but officers there missed it by about 15 minutes, according to court documents.
A search warrant for the history of Villanueva-Morales’ phone shows it was located in Dallas near a Greyhound bus station.
An affidavit in support of charging Villanueva-Morales with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was filed days after the shooting. It was unsealed in November.
Police continued searching for Villanueva-Morales in the Kansas City area, sending a tactical team to surround two Kansas City, Kansas, homes. He wasn’t there.
Two suspects in custody
Reached Thursday after Villanueva-Morales’s arrest in Mexico, a spokesperson for the FBI in Kansas City said the agency was not at liberty to release more information.
Officer Jonathon Westbrook, a Kansas City, Kansas, police spokesman, said he did not know the details of Villanueva-Morales’s arrest, but noted a task force involving several agencies, including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, was created to find him.
As of Thursday afternoon, Villanueva-Morales had not been returned to the U.S., Westbrook said.
The records charging Villanueva-Morales in federal court also provide more details about how Alatorre was arrested.
Once the home in the 2600 block of Quincy Street was surrounded by the FBI, a tactical team spoke to the residents inside with a loud speaker, and Alatorre exited the front door.
Searching the home, officers found a 9mm handgun — the same caliber as the casings found at the bloody crime scene — and the Los Angeles Dodgers hat Alatorre was seen wearing on the bar’s surveillance video.
Alatorre is set to appear in court next Dec. 31. No court date has been set for Villanueva-Morales.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 2:58 PM.
