Family still in shock

The echoes of a Friday night shooting are still reverberating loudly with the victim’s family.

Gabriel Rodriguez, 34, died Friday night in the 3100 block of Pleasant Avenue. Police said he was found in his red Dodge Ram pickup in the alley with a gunshot wound to the head.

The body was sent Tuesday to Tarrant County for an autopsy.

“I didn’t know of any enemies,” Joe Rodriguez, Gabriel Rodriguez’s brother, said while standing Tuesday outside Odessa Funeral Home. “We were in shock when we heard about it. We’re still in shock over everything.”

The brother said the most shocking part of the situation was that Gabriel Rodriguez had picked up his three children from his first wife just a few hours before the shooting.

“He’d just picked up his kids from his old lady,” Joe Rodriguez said, his eyes tearing as he spoke. “He told his wife that he had to go do something and then next thing you know he’s dead. Those kids were his life — he was always at football or baseball.”

For uncle Val Rodriguez, even being out at night was unusual for Gabriel Rodriguez.

“He never looked for fights,” he said. “He was hardly even out by the time it got dark. He’s not the type of person to have people angry at him.”

Val Rodriguez said if there were problems, the family would have known.

“There was no problems that I know of,” he said. “I know he would have said something if he had a problem.”

Joe Rodriguez said the entire family was struggling, but the slain man’s three children and stepchild were feeling the brunt of the tragedy.

“They’re taking it pretty bad,” he said. “They don’t have a dad anymore. It’s horrible.”

While Odessa Police Department officials said they had no suspects as of press time Tuesday, Val Rodriguez said he hopes justice is served.

“I hope whoever is arrested gets what he deserves,” he said. “He took someone’s life in cold blood. I hope he gets everything he has coming to him.”

The shooting has also brought fear to the family.

“I don’t want to be out after dark anymore,” Val Rodriguez said. “If an innocent man like Gabriel could get shot, anybody could.”

HOW TO HELP

>> To provide information, call the Odessa Police Department at 333-3641 or 335-3333 or Odessa CrimeStoppers at 333-8477.