Texas City Commissioner Dies In Police Shootout Following ‘Domestic Disturbance’

A Texas city commissioner, Gabriel Salinas, was shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with police at his home.

Officers responding to a domestic disturbance call arrived at the Sullivan City Commissioner’s home in Mission, Texas, late Thursday, July 30.

A neighbor called police after Salinas’ 39-year-old girlfriend showed up at his home “bleeding profusely.” The woman suffered severe injuries caused by a knife or machete, Mission police chief Robert Dominguez said during a press conference.

The officers approached Salinas' home through the garage door. The woman's 4-year-old son ran toward the officers as soon as he saw them. He was bleeding from the head, Dominguez said. Both the woman and the child were rushed to the McAllen Medical Center.

The officers then encountered Salinas, who allegedly opened fire at them. The 39-year-old barricaded himself inside the house when the officers returned fire. Police tried to contact him but he barricaded himself inside the home for a total of three hours. After hours of failed attempts, officers sent in a robot, which found Salinas lying in a pool of blood in a bedroom, the police chief said.

"As far as I know right now, it was not a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I think that he died as a result of being hit in the transfer of fire," with the two Mission officers and a Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy, Dominguez told media.

The 4-year-old was treated at the hospital and released. The woman remained in critical condition after undergoing surgery. She was expected to recover.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Maria Montalvo confirmed that the Texas Rangers were investigating the shooting. This was the standard protocol when there was an officer-involved shooting, Dominguez said.

Salinas was arrested in September last year on a misdemeanor assault charge involving the same woman, Dominguez said. But the charge was later dismissed as the woman failed to pursue them.

“He is a human being, and we’re with the family at this time. I know it’s really hard,” Dominguez told the media. “To have to tell his mother and his sisters that he died … in this profession, unfortunately, it’s one of the things we have to do.”

Salinas, an engineer, was elected to the city commission in May 2017, local daily The Monitor reported.