Witness: Gunman upset daughter was in relationship

Copied from The Statesmen

By Claudia Grisales | Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 04:45 PM

4:45 p.m. update: Police say a man, upset that his daughter was in a relationship with a woman, killed his daughter’s girlfriend and her mother in a Southeast Austin home Monday night.

Jose Alfonso Aviles, 45, has been charged with capital murder and was arrested early this morning in Bexar County by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, said Lt. Gena Curtis. Aviles lives in Austin, but was found in San Antonio, police said.

Aviles’ daughter had been dating 24-year-old Norma Hurtado for several months, which was the source of feuding between the Aviles and Hurtado families, Curtis said.

The daughter told police that she was “in a lesbian relationship which her father did not approve of.”

Aviles and another Hispanic man, who has not been identified, went to the Hurtado’s home at the 7100 block of Dixie Drive late Monday and knocked on the door, Curtis said. Moments later, Aviles’ daughter, who was in the home, heard gun shots and found that Hurtado and Hurtado’s mother, 57-year-old Maria Hurtado, had been shot, police said.

Both women died at the scene, police said.

Witnesses reported seeing two Hispanic men leaving quickly from the home in a green sport utility vehicle, police said.

Police could not say whether the crime would be considered a hate crime, saying that issue would be up to the district attorney’s office.

Aviles was detained in the Bexar County jail this morning, a U.S. Marshals Service official said, adding that they were working on transferring to Travis County.

UPDATE: The Austin Police Department has released the names of the victims in Monday’s double homicide.

Norma Hurtado, 24, and Maria Hurtado, 57, were shot to death at their home in Southeast Austin, officials said.

EARLIER: A suspect in a double homicide in Southeast Austin was arrested early this morning in Bexar County and charged with capital murder, an Austin police official said today.

Jose Alfonso Aviles, 45, was arrested about 4:30 a.m. in San Antonio by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Police say Aviles fired multiple shots into a home at the 7100 block of Dixie Drive near Salt Springs Drive about 6:45 p.m. Monday, killing two adults who opened the front door, police have said.

The names of the people who were shot have not been released.

The headline for this story has been changed to reflect that it was a witness, and not police, who said the killings were motivated by a lesbian relationship.