Background: The 17000 block of Butte Creek Road outside Houston, Texas (Google Maps) Inset: Angel Gomez Montanez (Harris County Sheriff”s Office)
In a Texas home, a man lived without paying rent for several months. When asked to pay up, he reportedly responded by shooting and killing one of his roommates and trying to harm others.
Angel Gomez Montanez, 21, was being sought by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for the alleged murder of 18-year-old Christopher Rodriguez Lara. After evading authorities for at least two days, Montanez was apprehended, charged with murder, and taken into custody at the Harris County Jail.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
On the evening of June 12, around 10 p.m., deputies from Harris County responded to an incident on Butte Creek Road at the 17000 block and discovered Rodriguez Lara with gunshot wounds. Despite swift arrival of emergency personnel, Rodriguez Lara was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives investigating the crime learned the shooting arose out of an argument over paying rent, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The suspect reportedly wasn’t just a random roommate either, but a man with familial ties to the victim.
“The only thing we told him is we needed the money for rent,” Zuleyka Ortiz told KTRK, adding that Gomez Montanez is her children’s older brother and was offered a place on their apartment’s couch for three months before being asked to help out. “I told him this can’t be happening. We have bills to pay.”
After being asked to pay rent, days before the shooting, Gomez Montanez gathered his belongings and left the apartment, Ortiz told the outlet. When he came back, he said he needed to speak with Rodriguez Lara, who he then allegedly shot outside of his front door.
Authorities said Gomez Montanez also tried to shoot the victim’s brother, per the Charlotte Observer. A 9-year-old witness reportedly heard the suspect say, “I’m going to kill all of them,” before he left.
Ortiz remembered Rodriguez Lara, her brother-in-law, as “the happiness in this home … My children loved him.”
