Crane reacts to killing

CRANE Jose Reynoso may never forget the night his neighbor, Jorge Silva, died.

"It was almost 7 p.m., and I was lying in bed and started hearing a bunch of screaming," the 17-year-old said. "There was a banging on my window, and I just thought it was one of my friends playing a joke."

It wasn't. Rather it was his friend's father with a blade piercing him just below the breast bone.

Reynoso said the knife was big, but the handle was missing so he thought it was a shard.

After Reynoso's mother called the ambulance and applied a torn shirt to the wounds, Silva began to calm down.

Reynoso said he watched Silva walk to the stretcher on his own, but that he was drenched in blood.

"This is something pretty amazing for around here," Reynoso said.

He spent the next few hours sitting with his distraught little brother and holding a pistol in the living room while his mother followed the ambulance to the hospital.

The Reynoso family was among those personally affected by more than two days of events, which included the death of Silva, an assault of a 25-year-old Crane woman, theft of a vehicle, the wrecking of a police squad car and a flight from law enforcement officials that lasted more than 20 hours.

It was a series of events that woke up this town of around 4,000.

Crane's a place where people keep their doors unlocked at night, leave keys in the car and welcome walk-in houseguests.

Things are changing.

"Everything is so sketchy right now - we're not used to things like that happening around here," said Charmin Sharp, manager of the Dairy Queen.

Sharp overheard the daily morning coffee drinkers talking about it Thursday.

"Everyone's shocked over it. It's put everyone in a freeze," she said.

Sharp said she never before used to lock her doors - but she'll start now.

Among those discussing the shocking events in crane was a police officer's wife who told Sharp she was startled when her husband called yesterday, telling her to get the kids, get in the house and lock the doors.

What stuns people like Sharp, a resident of Crane for more than 35 years, is that there's no obvious connection between the victim and the suspect. It could've been anybody, she said.

Sharp's daughter, Crystal, lost a friend years back.

Noe Alejandro "Alex" Perez, 18, was indicted Sept. 3, 2004, in the death of 17-year-old Guadalupe "Lupita" Morales.

But, it wasn't the same, Sharp said - there was a connection. Perez and Morales had been dating.

Sharp also said she couldn't help but notice the suspect's bizarre countenance in the mug shot she saw.

"It angered me in a way that he was smiling in the police snapshot - like he was excited," she said.

Across town, Gennetta Wilcox lives on the block where the slaying took place. She lives with her daughter. Unlike a lot of the Crane residents, Wilcox always locks her doors.

"The times have changed - you don't know who to trust anymore." Wilcox said.

Wilcox has lived in Crane for 20 years and remembers a time when everyone "smiled and waved at others," she said. However, she said "it seems like things have changed with all of the oil."

David Cadena, Crane Middle School band director, would agree that things have changed in town.

"The crime rate in the area seems to have gone up because so much is going on around here," Cadena said.

Even still, it's shocking that this happened in the small, relatively quiet town, he said.

Cadena said some of his middle school students have called him expressing fright.

"Some of the kids are paranoid and losing sleep," he said. "I had some twirlers call about it, and I could tell they were scared."

WHAT HAPPENED?

>> A Colorado man identified as Gillie Thomas Thurby Jr. was arrested and charged just before 2 p.m. Wednesday in the stabbing death of a Crane man, the assault of a 25-year-old woman, and the assault of a peace officer.

>> Thurby was charged with capital murder, aggravated assault of a public servant, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault.