Man shot in yard

ECTOR COUNTY Ector County Sheriff's Office investigators have little information on the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Odessa man north of Odessa.

Rey Valdez was found in a yard after a 9-1-1 call that came in at 1:23 a.m. Thursday at 7305 Hughes Lane. He had a single shot fired from a handgun of an unknown caliber that went through his upper left arm and into his chest.

Valdez was taken to the Medical Center Hospital, where he later died, according to a press release from the sheriff's office. His body will be taken to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth for an autopsy Saturday.

"We talked to several people," sheriff Sgt. Gary Duesler said near the blue, run-down home that was the scene of the shooting. There were "several" people of interest who were witnesses to the shooting, but no suspects by Thursday evening.

Even though there were apparently several people at the scene, Duesler said that investigators did not yet know what caused the shooting.

"We're trying to piece the stories together," he said.

The Ector County Appraisal District's online records state that Lula Pearl Roach is the owner of the property where the shooting occurred, and it that was in the care of Dwain and Beverly Barina.

Robert Hernandez, who said he was Valdez's best friend for four years, said that he heard Valdez had a fight with his father-in-law Dwain Barina, just before the shooting. Duesler made no mention of any altercations beforehand.

"I don't know if you ever heard the phrase ‘wasted talent'... Rey was a 20-year-old prodigy when it came to building houses, plumbing... he could do it all," Hernandez, 27, said.

The neighbors at the dusty block-long street scattered with trailer homes and old cars remained tight-lipped. None of them wished to speak to the media on what happened, including two women who were seen with cars parked in front of the yard that afternoon. Duesler said that no one beyond the witnesses found at the scene came forward yet.

Justin Dotson, a resident who lives a street away from that yard, said he thought he heard something that morning.

"I woke up for a second," he said. "For all I knew it was all in my dreams. It's normally so quiet around this area, man, other than the dogs barking."

A neighbor knocked on his door later that morning and asked him if he heard "all the booms" during the night before he realized those shots were real. He wasn't aware anyone died from that shooting until he was told by an Odessa American reporter.

Valdez's death marks the second homicide this week in Ector County, two days after Kelsi and Jarrett Weaver were found dead in their Odessa apartment with gunshot wounds. Odessa police believe the pair were victims of a murder-suicide.

Anyone with information on the Tuesday morning shooting should call the Ector County Sheriff's Office at 335-3050.